Vote-switching Dems credit Obama for bailout support

Some Democrats are touting calls from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as an explanation for why they are switching their votes to support the financial recovery package the House will consider Friday.

The announcements by at least seven Democrats that said Obama had helped sway them suggest the bill could pass without significant additional Republican support.

{mosads}The Democrats — most of them freshmen — held a press conference during the floor debate on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout to announce that they were switching their “no” votes to yes.

Each gave a different rationale for now being supportive of the bill they voted against on Monday, including billions in individual and business tax cuts, disaster assistance aid and even a swing in constituent reaction.

But all emphasized that they were buoyed by assurances from Obama that Congress will be a full partner in climbing out from the larger economic crisis if the Democrat is elected president.

Freshman Rep. Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) said she organized a conference call with Obama on Thursday, in which a number of freshman Democrats laid out their concerns to the Illinois senator.

And what they heard in return was enough to secure their votes for the bill, Sutton and others said.

Sutton said that “commitments made by Obama and the Democratic leadership that an economic stimulus bill will be a top priority” convinced her to support a bill she still disagrees with. She was joined by freshman Democratic Reps. Bruce Braley (Iowa), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Donna Edwards (Md.) and John Yarmuth (Ky.).

“Sen. Obama has also made it clear that he will make recouping taxpayer money a top priority,” Sutton said.

At the height of the negotiations between House leaders and with the Senate and the administration, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) suspended his campaign to return to Washington to try and broker a deal.

Some Republican lawmakers have insisted that McCain’s entry into the debate helped them win changes to the bill, but the senator’s arrival last week coincided with the darkest 24 hours of the negotiations, when House Republicans temporarily walked away from the negotiating table.

Yarmuth, who said he still “hates the bill,” said he was encouraged by his conversation with Obama, in which the senator assured him that “he does not view [the bailout bill] as the end of road.”

“He has said many times, ‘Really, this is just patching up the hole in the boat to get it to port,’ ” Yarmuth said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) appeared in a separate press conference with Edwards to announce his support for the bill, but said that his conversations with Obama also helped convince him the financial-services recovery bill was a necessary evil.

“Sometimes you have to do what’s necessary,” Cummings said. “This is our moment … We can’t sit on the sidelines. If that’s what we do, we might as well just stay home.”

Additional Democrats, including Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.), announced on the House floor that Obama had helped convince them to support the bill.

Since Monday, when the bill failed to pass the House, on a 205-228 vote, a total of 14 Republicans have publicly announced that they will now be voting yes, and an additional eight appeared close to switching from no to yes.