The next step is up to the U.S. Senate on a bill that would impose special taxes on bonus money awarded by AIG and other companies that get federal bailout money.

The House approved a plan drawn up by Democrats that would hit AIG-type bonuses with a tax rate of 90 percent.  The vote was 328 to 93 as 243 Democrats joined with 85 Republicans to easily approve the bill.

Only six Democrats voted 'no.'

The margin of victory was much higher than I had expected, as a number of Republicans decided to vote 'aye' late in the tally.  You can read my other blog for an explanation on that.

What does it tell me?  Well, it shows that the House is closest to the American people, and that was obvious from the GOP vote totals.

Almost half of all Republicans voted for this bill, even though their vocal members were out on the floor denouncing the Democratic bill in no uncertain terms.

"This political circus that's going on here today with this bill is not getting to the bottom of the questions of who knew what and when did they know it," said House GOP Leader John Boehner.

Boehner's refrain on "who knew what" was all part of a broad Republican effort to zero in on changes made in the economic stimulus bill on a provision dealing with executive pay and bonuses for those companies getting federal bailout dollars.

It sounds good right now, but I'm not sure how much staying power it has. But you may as well beat the other guy over the head as often as you can.

Soon after the bill was approved by the House, Senate Democrats tried to bring the bill immediately to the Senate floor, but Republicans objected.

Still, I do expect to see action on this plan, though there won't be any kind of legislative slam dunk at this point in time, partly because of Senate rules and partly because some key Senators have already unveiled a substantially different plan.

But moving past the details, Democrats obviously hope they have something that can keep the Republicans on the run, and they got some encouragement from President Obama.

"I look forward to receiving a final product that will serve as a strong signal to the executives who run these firms that such compensation will not be tolerated," Mr. Obama said in a written statement issued by the White House.

I would love to have been over at the offices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac today to see if anyone was watching the House floor, because all they would need to do was insert the words "Fannie and Freddie" for everytime they heard "AIG."

(If you didn't hear, those two mortgage giants - both owned and operated now by the federal government - are readying six figure bonuses for their executives, who lost a Carl Sagan-like billions and billions and billions of dollars last year.

Stay tuned.