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Photos by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

And there he is, President Barack H. Obama, as viewed from Section 2, Green, Seat 83, three rows behind the orchestra pit.

From that vantage point, the best view was of the U.S. Capitol rising high above the partially-obscured lectern where the new president delivered his inaugural address. 

Or, turning around, you could see what the president saw: an uninterrupted sea of humanity stretching all the way to the Washingon Monument -- and beyond. 

Look closely, and you can see some famous faces in the crowd, too.  Denzel Washington was there.  Don King was there.  And we were introduced to a few people we didn't even know that we should know.

 

     

Photos by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

This question dawned on me on Sunday afternoon, as I stood a mile away from the Lincoln Memorial and gazed across an uninterrupted sea of shivering people who were waiting to hear an all-star concert and then a short little speech from President-elect Barack Obama.

 

If Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder and U2 are among your warm-up acts, then how big a rock star must you be?

 

 There outside the Lincoln Memorial, Sunday's crowd rivaled the one that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. faced while giving his "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963.

 

Forty-six years later, on the eve of MLK Day, the crowd was every bit as diverse and united as Dr. King once envisioned, with black folks and white folks standing shoulder to shoulder or walking arm in arm.

 

Elderly, African-American couples were everywhere in the crowd, often standing silently even as their younger companions cheered or danced or hollered.

 

Vendors hawking the new president's picture on every item imaginable worked their ways through the crowd. And protesters made their presence felt, too.

 

 One somber group of marchers, clad in orange jump suits with black hoods over their heads, made a silent statement to urge the new president to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, as promised. As they slowly circled the Washington Monument under gloomy, gray skies, a college-aged onlooker cried out: "If water-boarding is torture, what does that make snowboarding?"

 

I was still pondering that question when there was another spontaneous outburst that might surprise some Republicans.

 

As the ever-growing crowd waited for the concert to begin, three helicopters appeared overhead, circling the National Mall.

 

Eyes lit up.  Everybody knew.  This was the current White House occupant, outgoing President George W. Bush, returning from his last little respite at Camp David.

 

People in the decidedly left-leaning crowd cheered and offered enthusiastic waves - with all five fingers - as the president's helicopter passed and then landed behind some trees.

 

Was this the start of a mass movement?  Were these Americans, and even these Democrats, letting bygones be bygones?

 

As one observer wondered online: "Anyone think Bush is griping about all them ... hippies trampling the lawn?"

 

And there it is, your intrepid correspondent's official ticket to this year's festival of hope, hype and hypothermia in the nation's capital.

President-elect Barack Obama's arrival in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night sets the stage for a long string of events leading up to the inauguration on Tuesday.

Click on THIS LINK RIGHT HERE to see how some of the scene unfolded through the day on Saturday.

Sen. Ken Salazar on Saturday set the paperwork in motion to resign his U.S. Senate seat immediately after his confirmation as Secretary of Interior, something that's expected to happen shortly after President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday.

The announcement, contained in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is a formality that's necessary before Gov. Bill Ritter can appoint Denver Public Schools chief Michael Bennet to complete the last two years of Salazar's term.

In the letter, Salazar said he felt "privileged" to have served the people of Colorado.

"As I prepare to leave my post as a United States Senator, I carry with me a firm and unyielding belief that there is no limit to what we can accomplish, that there is no problem we cannot solve, so long as we remember that we are in this together," Salazar wrote. "It has been an extraordinary privilege to serve the five million people of the great state of Colorado as their United States Senator.  You can be certain that as Secretary of the Interior, I will work hard, every day, to continue to make our country proud."

Sen. Ken Salazar faces a confirmation hearing today to become Interior Secretary in President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet.

The grilling will be done by Salazar's colleagues on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Salazar has served during his four years in the U.S. Senate.

Observers, including both Democrats and Republicans, say they're expecting few fireworks, although Salazar is likely to face questions about his past stands on commercial oil shale leases, energy exploration, the endangered species act and a series of scandals that plagued the Interior Department over the past eight years.

The Rocky Mountain News is providing live coverage here, starting at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time (7:30 a.m. in Colorado).

Watch below for live updates.

Newer items will be at the top.

* * *

11:40 a.m. - Senators are continuing non-confrontational rounds of questioning on various bureaus and agencies within the vast Department of Interior.

Salazar's former colleagues have asked several times about his position on whether to allow people to carry concealed weapons on federal lands, such as in national parks.

Without taking a specific stand, Salazar has told the stories of learning to use a gun from a very young age in the rural San Luis Valley, where he sometimes stood guard over the family's sheep herds.

"I grew up learning how to shoot a gun, probably since I was 3 years old. I probably shouldn't have been doing it at that age," Salazar said. "So I have a healthy respect for guns and I know how to use a gun."

He said he had a "healthy respect" for the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and gun rights in general, and he said he'd study the public lands gun issue when he's confirmed.

On another issue, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., cited a list of woes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, and then boiled down his point.

"Fix the BIA," Dorgan said.  After a pause he added: "You'll do that, right?" prompting an outburst of laughter in the committee room.

The laughter typified the tone of the last hour of the hearing: friendly.

10:40 a.m. - Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., pressed Salazar on the issue of oil shale, alluding to Salazar's outspoken role last year in pushing for a more cautious approach to commercial leasing regulations that the Bush administration advanced.

"My view has been that we need to look at it as part of a comprehensive energy plan," Salazar said, but he stressed that he did not want to move forward with developing oil shale technology in a "reckless" way before more is known about how much energy and precious western water it will take to extract oil from rock buried under the Rocky Mountain region.

"It is rock, rock, rock, and we don't have some answers to some very important questions," Salazar said.

In a cordial exchange, Burr cautioned Salazar to remember that better technology might not advance unless industry has more certainty about the federal policies.

10:30 a.m. -- The early grilling was the opposite of intense, typified by the close of Republican Sen. Mel Martinez's five minutes of so-called grilling, which ended with "I have no questions. I just want to tell you how much we're going to miss you."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., tried to break the mood, saying the hearing was "on its way to becoming a full-fledged bouquet-tossing contest."

Wyden pressed Salazar on his commitment to reversing "politically-tainted judgments" made in the name of science during the Bush administration, and he pressed Salazar to "drain the swamp" and fix the scandal-plagued Minerals Management Service.

10 a.m. -- In setting out his priorities as Interior Secretary, Salazar began by saying that for too long the department has been viewed as something that oversees the lands of the West, even though it has jurisdiction over a vast portfolio of issues covering every corner of the nation.

"I want this department to be America's department," Salazar said.

Turning to issues, he cited an Inspector General's report that cited the long list of scandals that have occurred within the department, and said it's clear what he needs to tackle first: our first and foremost task is to restore the integrity of the Department of Interior."

Salazar also spoke of the department's role in helping the new administration take "a moon shot," on the scale of the Apollo missions, to launch the country on the way to energy independence.

9:46 a.m. -- After emotional introductions from the nominee's brother, Rep. John Salazar, and Sen. Mark Udall, Salazar has been sworn-in, and has thanked family members in attendance, including his wife, Hope, and daughters Melinda and Andrea.

And he is thanking his late father, Henry, and his mother, Emma, saying, "They instilled in us the values I have brought to the U.S. Senate and to my public life."

9:40 a.m. -- The hearing is underway.

In opening remarks, committee chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said that Obama "could not have chosen a better nominee" than Salazar.

"Clearly Sen. Salazar understands the West and the special needs of the public lands states," said Bingaman, who offered his "enthusiastic support."

And, as if there was any doubt about the fate of Salazar's nomination, even the committee's highest-ranking Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, praised Salazar "as a consensus builder and centrist" and used the phrase "if confirmed, as I certainly expect that you will be..."

9:30 a.m. -- Salazar has entered the room, greeted guests, posed for pictures and now awaits his grilling.

9:28 a.m. -- Audience members and special guests are now filling most of the committee hearing room. Among them are the two Coloradans who will introduce Sen. Salazar: his brother, Rep. John Salazar, and Sen. Mark Udall, who is poised to become Colorado's senior U.S. Senator if his colleague is confirmed to Obama's cabinet.

Still awaiting Salazar's arrival, the committee has just distributed copies of Salazar's prepared remarks, in which he tells his now-familiar family story before getting into issues.

"If confirmed, I will remain committed to helping our nation reduce its dangerous dependence on foreign oil," Salazar says in the prepared remarks.  "President-elect Obama believes, as I do, that our foreign oil dependence is a grave threat to our national security, our planet and our economy."

Photo by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

With the inauguration of President Barack Obama just a week away, the anticipation -- and expectations -- seem to be growing by the day in the nation's capital.

Obama's name and picture are plastered everywhere. 

On billboards.  On books.  On international phone cards for sale at the local convenience stores.  On buttons.  On bumper stickers.  On plates.  On caps.  On t-shirts, jackets, sunglasses.  On news rack cards for the Washington Times (a paper with a conservative reputation).  On everything.

At one fancy bed and bath boutique in DuPont Circle, you can even get your very own monogrammed "Obama" bathrobe.

The pre-inaugural hype far outpaces anything seen in the abbreviated run-up to President Bush's 2001 inauguration and the second inaugural in 2005.

Besides the historic nature of Obama's election, the anticipation might have something to do with the difficult economic times the country is going through.

And when the going gets tough, the tough go for fast food.

Over the weekend, the president elect made his first visit to the landmark Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street, a joint with a storied history in the life of the District of Columbia.  At Ben's, there's a small, hand-written sign behind the counter inviting the Obama family (or Ben's fan Bill Cosby) to dine for free anytime.  But Obama reportedly paid for his chili half-smoke dog with a $20 -- keep the change.

Elsewhere in the District, restaurants are hoping some of the magic rubs off on them, too. 

An Obama appearance can turn a site into an instant tourist attraction -- just in time for the expected arrival of up to several million people for the Jan. 20 festivities.

And that could explain the prayer hanging above the entrance of one of our favorite, all-night haunts, the American City diner in Chevy Chase.

Photos by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

With all the hoopla over Rep. Sen. Mark Udall's first day in the U.S. Senate, it might have been easy to overlook the other three newcomers who have helped give the Colorado congressional delegation a sudden transformation.

But have no fear.

We took our omnipresent and ever-annoying point-and-shoot camera and raced all over Capitol Hill on Tuesday, moving fast enough to catch newly-minted Reps. Jared Polis, Betsy Markey and Mike Coffman.

It fascinates us to compare the fashion trends in wardrobes and office decorations.  Enjoy.

Can you guess which one is the conservative?

 

Around the same time President-elect Barack Obama's two young children were being hounded by camera crews as they took off for their first day in school on Monday, lesser-known Michael Bennet slipped into Capitol Hill virtually unnoticed for his crash course on becoming the "next after the next" U.S. Senator from Colorado (after Mark Udall's swearing-in ceremonies Tuesday, of course).

Bennet sat down with us for a brief chat.  He's still not ready to lay out a laundry list of policy positions -- something that will draw him more heat the longer he takes the cautious route.

But he did talk about the challenges ahead and his desire to keep much of Sen. Ken Salazar's current staff in place.

And by breaking away to hold a long-distance conference call with his staff at Denver Public Schools, the superintendent -- at least two weeks from being given the "Senator" title -- showed us how it's tricky balancing the here and now duties with the thoughts of what comes next.

CHECK OUT the story HERE.

Photos by M.E. Sprengelmeyer

With a Texan leaving the White House, we thought we'd be losing some of the cowboy-country stuff that moseyed into the federal bureaucracy eight years ago.

 

For example, get a load of this hypothetical that crept into the federal code in January 2001 -- just days before President Bush's inauguration.

 

 

In ethics rules for federal employees, it offered this hypothetical guidance:

 

"Example 8: The head of a cabinet-level department may contribute one
of her worn-out cowboy boots to the campaign committee of a Senatorial
candidate to be auctioned off in a fundraising raffle for the benefit of
the candidate's campaign."

 

We're not sure if former Interior Secretary Gale Norton ever took advantage of the rule.

 

But have no fear, collectors of cowboy kitsch. 

 

It's still relevant thanks to the nomination of boot-wearing Coloradan, Sen. Ken Salazar, to be Interior Secretary.

 

With all the (expletive) kicking that President-elect Barack Obama has asked Salazar to do, he'll wear out a pair in no time.