The vote in the House on the AIG/bonus tax bill was an interesting one to watch, mainly because a number of lawmakers weren't sure until the last minute which way they were voting.

Votes in the House are 15 minutes in length, but they go on much longer at times, as members make their way to the floor in the Capitol.

When the clock hit 0:00 on this bill, not even half of the members had voted, as the totals stood at 137 for the bonus tax bill and 55 against.

At this point, 24 Republicans had voted yes, and 53 had voted no.  101 GOP votes were left.  By the time the vote was over there were 85 GOP yes votes and 87 no votes. 

In other words, a lot of GOP votes went to the 'yes' side at the end.

That surprised a few of us watching the action from the Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor.  I guess I thought more Repbublicans would vote no, since the debate sure made it sound like that.

For example, there was GOP Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida, who got up during debate and complained about the Democratic bill, that it didn't go far enough in blocking the AIG bonuses.

"The fact is, the Republicans have a plan to block 100% of these bonuses," said Stearns.

But when the final tally came down, Stearns voted for the bill.

GOP Congressman Leonard Lance of New Jersey also argued in floor debate for a Republican plan to block 100% of such bonuses.

But Lance also then went and voted for the AIG/bonus bill.

As for the final few minutes of the actual vote, by my count, there were eight Republicans who decided at the end to change their votes from no to yes on the bill.

Those switchers were Mike Thompson of California, Don Young of Alaska, Dennis Rehberg of Montana, Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, Jerry Lewis of California, Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, C.W. "Bill" Young of Florida and Henry Brown of South Carolina.

Their decision did not swing the ultimate outcome.

One Democrat seemingly had a difficult time figuring out what to do, as Congressman Larry Kissell of North Carolina voted "Present," and then changed to a "no" vote on the bonus bill.

Next stop for this is the Senate, which may vote on a bonus tax bill before the Easter break.