Senator Vice President-Elect Biden

During today's swearing in ceremony from the floor of the U.S. Senate, there will be one man who really doesn't need the job. Vice President-elect Joe Biden, having been reelected to his seventh term as the Senator from Delaware, will be sworn in with the rest of the incoming class. And with the 111th Congress planning to move swiftly on the economic stimulus bill:

"If a critical vote comes up and Sen. Biden is needed, he will vote," Biden spokeswoman Annie Tomasini said Tuesday.

If Biden does cast another Senate vote before assuming the vice presidency, it would be the first time in 60 years that a vice-president-elect voted in a new Congress prior to being sworn in as vice president. Kentucky Sen. Alben W. Barkley cast several Senate votes in January 1949 — including to confirm Dean Acheson as secretary of State — before resigning his seat to become Harry S Truman’s vice president.

And in other "did you know" news, when Dick Cheney administers the oath to Biden today, it will be the first time since 1961 that a sitting Vice President will swear in his successor.