2 cities joined in a cycle of angst

WASHINGTON In New York, traders watched in disbelief as the $700 billion financial bailout plan sank like a stone in Congress. In Washington, plugged-in lawmakers knew the stock market was tanking in anticipation of the defeat.

"Down 600!" New York Rep. Joe Crowley yelled to Republican colleagues half an hour into the vote. It would get worse, sinking 777 points for the day.

In New York, trader Theodore Weisberg of Seaport Securities injected an understatement: "People are going to go home and look at their 401(k)s and not be very happy, and these are not just people from New York but Iowa and everywhere else."

Two cities joined Monday in a mutually reinforcing cycle of angst and fear that shook the nation's political and financial foundations and sent the Dow spiraling into its worst one-day loss.

A dismayed Republican House leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, had his hands stuffed in his pockets for much of the vote. He recounted later that he could just not get enough people on his side to support the package. "Nobody, nobody wanted to vote for this," he said. "Nobody."

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In Washington beforehand, leaders on both sides knew trouble was ahead for a bailout plan more expensive than the Iraq war.

GOP Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., laid out the picture for Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.: Republicans could deliver 65-70 votes for the package, not enough. About an hour before the vote was to begin, Blunt reported back to Boehner.

"We're going to have a tough time getting there," Blunt said, according to the GOP leader. Together, the two parties needed to change about a dozen minds.

That was tough indeed. Boehner had gone earlier to members "who'd do anything for me." Not this time. "You can't break their arms," Boehner said. "You can't put your relationship on the line."

It's not unusual for a bill to look all but lost, only to be revived as members troop to the House well to change their votes. If ever a situation called out for such a result, it was Monday's vote. But it takes time, and Democrats had made a point of blasting Republicans for holding votes open too long to twist arms when they were in charge.

Still, a few lawmakers, among them freshman Democrat Harry Mitchell of Arizona, hung around in the well, potentially ready to switch. Registered as a "no," Mitchell held a green "yes" voting card. Also from Arizona, Democratic freshman Gabrielle Giffords stood nearby.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., a "no" vote, hovered in the well, looking very much like a gettable vote. He had been lobbied in the back of the chamber by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., an emerging GOP leader on economic issues. Ryan supported the package and had given an impassioned speech.

"Heaven help us if we fail to pass this," Ryan said.

Meantime, the Dow was zagging like temperatures on a fever chart.

Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla., who had voted "no," switched to "yes." But GOP leaders simply couldn't get other members to turn, and the handful of other potential vote-switchers wouldn't jump unless they could be assured others would follow. Sullivan switched back to "no."

Boehner looked forlorn during much of the vote. He was hitting a brick wall. He patted the arm of Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., a reluctant "yes."

"I tried and tried and tried four or five of them who wanted to be there but just could not get themselves to vote 'yes,"' Boehner said afterward.

With the measure stalled, 12 votes shy of what was needed, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., came over to GOP leaders and extended six fingers as if to say: Give us six and we'll do the rest.

"They at a minimum had to get the momentum shifting the other way," he said later. "They didn't flip anybody."

Boehner and other GOP leaders blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose floor speech started with an assault on the "Bush administration's failed economic policies."

Boehner said those biting remarks finished off any chance of bringing about a dozen more Republicans onside. "All that evaporated with that speech," he said.

Near the end of the vote, Hoyer approached Republicans for the first of several encounters about what to do. A Democratic aide said a senior Republican responded: "You are in charge. You figure it out."

In New York, traders saw prices plunge on their handheld trading computers and watched the House vote on TV.

"How could this have happened?" asked Gordon Charlop, managing director with Rosenblatt Securities. "Is there such a disconnect on Capitol Hill?"

When asked by one trader about a position, a second trader invoked heartburn medication: "I'm long on Zantac."

In the last half hour of trading, traders bolted from one trading station to another, barking out sell orders as stocks plunged anew in the final minutes of the session. One trader yelled out, "Watch your back, watch your back" as he attempted to barrel through a crowd. He then collided with another person on the floor.

"This sell-off is an indictment," Weisberg said. "This isn't about Wall Street, but Main Street."

A large crowd gathered at the corner of Wall and Broad streets, outside the New York Stock Exchange. One protester, Gwen Goodwin of New York, held a sign with a picture of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, imitating the Uncle Sam pose, and the words, "I want your money."

AP Business Writer Joe Bel Bruno contributed to this report from New York.