At 5:55, two hours and 55 minutes after the roll call had begun - twice as long
as any previous vote in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives - two
obscure western Republicans emerged from the cloakroom. They walked, ashen and
cowed, down the aisle to the front of the chamber, scrawled their names and
district numbers on green cards to change their votes and surrendered the cards
to the clerk.