A funny thing happened on the way to the Senate

So here it comes... Tuesday is the first day of political grandstanding in the US Senate in the Year of our Lord, Two Thousand Aught Nine.

Roland Burris will be denied a seat in the United States Senate, despite he and everyone else on God's green earth knowing that no appointee of scandal-tainted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will get within throwing distance of proposing a bill or being designated legislative office space.

Burris' travel to Washington, D.C., and the circus surrounding it will be greater theater (This time of the political variety) than any former "Saturday Night Live" player could ever hope to be involved in — with the exception of Al Franken.

Yes, Stuart Smiley himself is poised to ascend to the Senate after a lengthy recount effort in his home state of Minnesota versus Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. The man who couldn't keep Air America out of bankruptcy is now set to help tackle the nation's massive economic crisis. Thankfully, he has a full slate of senators, the House of Representatives, all the president's men (mainly in Treasury and Commerce) and a slew of private businesses looking for bailout to help advise him on what's best for the taxpayers' money.

(I mean no disrespect to Mr. Franken. He seems like a decent fella, and I tend to think he'd be more honest in his dealings than Sen. Coleman... but the extent to which he has demonized Coleman in the past has bordered on obsession. We will soon find out if Mr. Franken is an able statesman or just a very good campaigner. Either way, it's no laughing matter.)

In the meantime, watch how Joe Biden, Ken Salazar and Hillary Clinton respectively spend their waning days in the Senate. Biden's headed for the Vice President's office, Salazar for the Interior Department, and Clinton to some faraway land to handle whatever global crisis crops up for the Secretary of State to deal with (it also wouldn't hurt if they could arrange a private fundraiser while she's there to help her continue to pay down her presidential campaign debt).

But never fear, Americans. All this hubbub will be extinguished in mere days when the inauguration occurs and the post-election hangover for Democrats wears off. This is the worst of times for the Democrats to be in the majority, with little money for the government to spend on respective members' pet projects. This is also the worst of times for the Republicans to be on the outside, looking in on power-broking, as they are generally the most-ardent supporters of cutting "waste" out of the budget (that is, to clear room for tax breaks for the rich and no-bid contracts to Halliburton, et al.).

But I count my blessings — today we are up in arms over Rick Warren performing the invocation at the inauguration. It wasn't all that long ago some crazy folks disrupted a Senate invokation by a Hindu guest chaplain.