Strange behavior with page.insert_html

I have a create.rjs file that does the following:

page.insert_html :top, :blist_tbody, :partial => 'my_partial_file', :object => @myobj

my_partial_file looks like the following:

<% show_full = false if show_full.nil? #flag to show/hide all info by default %>
<tr class="class1 class2 page_<%= !@page.blank? ? @page : 1 %> <%= cycle("odd", "even") %>" id='obj_id_<%=myobj.id%>'>
...

When this runs, and inserts this into the page it strips out all of the stuff before the !@page.blank... part, so the html inserted in the page looks like so:

1 odd" id='obj_id_123'>...

instead of

<tr class="class1 class2 page_1 odd" id='obj_id_123'>...

if I change the first line of the partial file by removing the inline comment or changing the closing rails tag to -%> instead of %> it works fine.

doesn't work:

<% show_full = false if show_full.nil? #flag to show/hide all info by default %>

works:

<% show_full = false if show_full.nil? %>
<% show_full = false if show_full.nil? #flag to show/hide all info by default -%>

Did not notice this behavior before version 2.3.6