At the start of the hearing, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis was visibly nervous (ok, so who wouldn't be). He chose his words carefully. Lawmakers desperately tried to get him to say he had been "threatened," but he wasn't biting. Instead, he tried to explain the conversation he had with then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and leave it to others to characterize.

I would sum up what Lewis said this way; Paulson told Lewis he supported Bank of America, but if he didn't go through with the deal and needed help later, he and the rest of the management would be gone. Lewis says he decided not to cancel the deal with Merrill Lynch after that conversation.

But Lewis says the threat of losing his job wasn't the reason he went ahead with the deal, saying "it was the seriousness, it was because they made it, not the threat itself." Twenty billion in taxpayer support factored into the equation, too. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns (D) N.Y. says he'll get the other side of the story when Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testify.