Was anyone else just watching CNN's coverage of the swearing in of the new U.S. Congress. That's senior member Robert Byrd just as he was sworn in by VP Dick Cheney...Byrd's waving his fist in victory caused Cheney to chuckle slightly before he shook the Senator's hand. I chuckled as well when I snapped this photo with my camera phone...

Interestingly, last night I was just reading a bit about Byrd in Barack Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope. In the book, Obama recalled from his first meeting with Byrd one year ago:

He told me I would do well in the Senate but that I shouldn't be in too much of a rush--so many senators today became fixated on the White House, not understanding that in the constitutional design it was the Senate that was supreme, the heart and soul of the Republic.