From this morning's Earlybird:

• "President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee on Thursday joined the growing group of politicians and committees pledging to return or donate to charity campaign contributions from Democratic moneyman Hassan Nemazee, who was arrested and charged Tuesday with trying to defraud Citibank of $74 million by offering fake collateral for a loan," Politico reports. "But a DNC official stopped short of promising that Obama would give back or give away contributions from other donors that came through Nemazee through a process known as bundling that brought in more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign."

• "The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been lobbying for three decades for the federal government to provide universal health insurance, especially for the poor," the New York Times reports. "Now, as President Obama tries to rally Roman Catholics and other religious voters around his proposals to do just that, a growing number of bishops are speaking out against it."

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "has launched an urgent effort to raise $100,000 by Monday to help combat what she calls GOP 'smears' about health care reform," Politico reports. "'Republican opponents of reform are coming out with one outrageous smear after the next, all aimed at derailing our progress. We must be able to counter their special interest-funded attacks and set the record straight,' Pelosi wrote in a letter to Democratic supporters."