I find this revelation from Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget — obtained during a session of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday — deeply disturbing…

Sen. TOM CARPER, D-Del.: We do — we need to find out what you're drinking. And…

(CROSSTALK)

ORSZAG: I will — I hope this isn't product placement, but this is Diet Coke. Apparently there's a big controversy that has broken out between Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke and what members of the administration drink what, but that's Diet Coke.

CARPER: Do you go back and forth or are you just a straight Diet Coke…

ORSZAG: No, I'm a Diet Coke guy.

ORSZAG: OK.

CARPER: All right. All right. I'm glad we got that on the record.

Diet Coke tastes like ass. No, I take that back. It tastes like diet ass.

And we're trusting the nation's budget to a guy who vouches for the taste of diet ass while under oath in congressional hearings.

No wonder the economy's going to shit.

Or, wait, was it the other way around? I can't remember! It was so long ago, and I required so many whiskey gingers to survive those interminable debates. All I know is there was some sort of selection process, and now Barack Obama is two days away from being sworn in as America's first junior senator from Chicago president.

To mark the beginning of the Inaugural festivities, yesterday Obama rode a train from Philadelphia to Washington, DC, a journey that called to mind his vice-president elect, who hopped aboard in Delaware…

"Folks, this is more than an ordinary train ride — this is a new beginning," Vice President-elect Joe Biden told 8,000 fans in Wilmington, Del., at the train stop where he boards the Amtrak for work every day.

Biden even confessed that some days when he is running late he calls ahead and the conductor pretends that there is "some mechanical difficulty that would last a minute or two" until Biden gets there.

And that is why Obama/Biden won Delaware, people wanted a "change" in terms of Joe Biden making them late for work all the time.

The train slowed through some small towns so the Obamas could step out on the balcony and the President-elect could blow the train's whistle.

"You're never too old to toot the horn. You pull it and, 'CHOO CHOO!'" Obama told some of the guests traveling with him.

This, of course, is precisely the sort of thing we have spent the past eight years mocking George W. Bush for saying, but it just sounds different coming from a guy with great graphic designers, you know?

Anyway, the Obama/Biden train ticket rolled in to the Capitol yesterday evening, and today there will be many exciting Inaugural events, a few of which will be mentioned here, so please stick around. Dennis and Wayne will be joining the fun just as soon as they regain consciousness.

Joe Biden — who will be sworn in as vice-president in just a few days — has somehow been persuaded to vacate the Senate seat that he was just sworn into for the 7th time just ten days ago.

Apparently, somebody managed to successfully explain to Biden that there's a new guy coming in, and he'll only have to not be an elected official for a little while…

Ted Kaufman, a Delaware Democrat who for decades has been a political adviser to Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., was sworn in Friday to fill the Senate seat Biden relinquished to become vice president…

Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who appointed Kaufman to fill Biden's vacated Senate seat, joined Biden in watching the swearing-in from the visitors' gallery. Biden, who will become vice president next Tuesday, formally resigned Thursday after 36 years in the Senate.

Our thoughts and prayers are with former Senator Biden during these trying four days of non-public service.

After years of drudgery in a Scranton-shaped hovel, vice president-elect Joe Biden is finally getting a chance to mingle with proper society in Washington, DC.

What's that? You think Joe Biden already knows the Beltway party circuit, thanks to his decades in the Senate?

Au contraire (that's French for "malarkey"): Joe Biden never did any hobnobbing with Washington's upper class, because he was just a train hobo with a colorful Cockney accent…

[Ted] Kaufman, who has been a close Biden friend since the 1970s, said Mr. Biden was damaged politically by his absence on the social scene.

"He did not participate in it," Mr. Kaufman said. "To be honest, it was a real hindrance, because when he ran for president in '87, people didn't know him. You could probably count on two hands the number of embassy functions he went to."

Ho ho! For heaven's sakes, you can't expect an urchin from the muddy streets of Delaware to feel comfortable at an embassy function — And rumor has it Joe Biden once ate Ossetra caviar with the Sevruga spoon, right in front of everybody.

He's so deliciously low, so horribly dirty!

Bam-whack! Put two notches on the table for Joe Biden, who appears to have decisively won reelection to his Senate seat in Delaware. That may not seem like such a big deal for the popular 38-term Senator , but it came with a catch this year – the very real possibility that he may never actually sit in that seat again.

If Barack Obama wins the presidency, Joe Biden becomes vice president . . . and Delaware did its part by hugely voting for the Democrats at the top of the ticket. If Biden resigns his seat, Gov. Ruth Ann Minner gets to appoint his successor. And who knows who that could be??

Oh yeah, Biden's son.

Of course he'll soon be serving in Iraq, which establishes an interesting standard to follow.  Specifically, does this mean that if Sarah Palin is elected vice president, they'll call Track back to govern Alaska?

Fox News calls Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois, Washington DC, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maine for Obama, and Oklahoma for McCain.

By the way, Brit Hume just called their setup "the strategery room." Aw…