Word: monday
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...perhaps it shouldn't have come as such a shock when the House of Representatives failed to pass the bill Monday afternoon, or that the rest of the day was spent in partisan fury and recriminations: Democrats blamed Republicans, Republicans blamed the Dems, the House blamed the Senate, the Senate blamed the House, John McCain blamed Barack Obama, Barack Obama blamed - well, you get the picture. Only one player remained relatively restrained in the aftermath of the defeat, which led to a 777-point free fall for the Dow Jones industrial average, the largest single point drop in history...
...around 11:30 on Monday morning, as the House drew closer to a vote, Blunt called House majority leader Steny Hoyer to express concern that they might not have the votes. "They thought that momentum would carry it and both sides would keep working; that was the way they left it," said one Democratic leadership aide familiar with the conversation. "No Republican ever asked to pull the bill...
...stakes became even clearer once the tally started at 1:27 Monday afternoon. By 1:51, 227 members had voted against it - nine votes more than the 218 majority. By 2:02 p.m., Hoyer and Representative Rahm Emanuel, the No. 4 House Democrat, were in animated discussions on the Republican side of the chamber with Boehner and Blunt. Hoyer "was running around in there saying, 'The market is falling! The market is falling!' " said Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican. Faced with a major GOP shortfall, Democrats refused to force 12 of their members to change their votes...
...Given the beating the stock and bond markets took after the vote, all sides still recognize that something must be passed, and quickly. But with the Jewish New Year celebration starting Monday night, nothing can be done until Wednesday evening at the earliest, and the House is not expected to be back in session until Thursday at noon. Democrats pledged to keep working on a bipartisan basis, though privately many questioned Boehner and Blunt's ability to deliver their fellow party members...
...more to lose in this debacle than John McCain. By claiming to suspend his campaign and pledging to help bring House Republicans on board, McCain put much of his political capital on the line - to the point that his staff were already claiming credit for the legislative coup Monday morning on the assumption that it would pass. "This is very bad for McCain," said Clyde Wilcox, a government professor at Georgetown University. "So he interrupts his campaign to fly to Washington to deliver a deal, and then cannot deliver his party? This suggests that everyone is running for cover...