Good Tuesday morning. One week from today, the United States will swear in its 44th president. RCP will be there, bundled up with everyone else. According to Weather.com's 10-day forecast, it should be sunny and cold on the west front of the Capitol, though above freezing.

***Today Pres. Bush will hold his final Cabinet meeting, and then award the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Pres.-elect Obama will meet with Senate Democrats over lunch on Capitol Hill.

**Roland Burris is now the senator-designate from Illinois, as Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Dick Durbin announced in a statement yesterday. The former attorney general's credentials were approved yesterday by the Secretary of the Senate.

"We have spoken to Mr. Burris to let him know that he is now the Senator-designate from Illinois and as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a Senator-elect," said Reid and Durbin. "Accordingly, barring objections from Senate Republicans, we expect Senator-designee Burris to be sworn in and formally seated later this week. We are working with him and the office of the Vice President to determine the date and time of the swearing-in."

**Hillary Clinton back on the Hill
*The big show is Sen. Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing at the Foreign Relations Committee. It's one of four confirmation hearings today.

*CNN lists some of the talking points for Sen. Clinton. She'll stress "a renewal of American leadership" and a "revitalization of diplomacy to promote our security interests and advance our values."

*Just in time, the AP reports that Clinton "intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation."

**Obama and Transition News
*Obama plans to issue an executive order closing Guantanamo on his first full day in office. But experts say it could take as much as a year to actually shut it down.

*He plans to drop a $3,000-per-job-created tax credit, with fellow Democrats warning it was ripe for abuse.

*This morning, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke said Obama's stimulus plan could give a "significant boost" to the economy, but that other steps are needed.

*ABC News reports that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright will be in DC speaking at Howard Univ.

*The Chicago Tribune has a nice piece on David Axelrod, who spoke at a Chicago venue where his disabled daughter, Lauren, lives. He gave some insights into campaign moments, like after tough defeats in Texas and Ohio last March. "As he was leaving, he turned around and said, 'I want you to know that I'm not yelling at you guys.' He took a few more steps and turned around and said, 'After blowing $20 million in two weeks, I could yell at you, but I'm not yelling at you.' You know what, had he yelled at us it would not have been nearly as effective." On reading Obama's draft of the race speech: "I read this beautiful, moving speech and I messaged him back and said, 'This is why you should be president.'" On the general: "After the first debate we had with John McCain, this race in many ways was over as far as we were concerned from a polling standpoint," he said. "We really gained steadily after that."

*Speaking of Texas, David Plouffe tells the Washington Post that he mishandled the March 4 primaries. "I think if we focused more on Texas, we might've been able to win the primary. And the price of that was that the primary went on for another three months."

*Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) predicts that Obama will get 65-70 votes for his health care reform

**Blago Alert: New York Times has some of the bizarre theater at state government offices in Chicago, where everyone laments Blago's persistence.

**Campaign News
*Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) announced yesterday that he will not seek re-election in 2010, adding yet another GOP seat to the vulnerable category. The two-term senator is the fourth Republican so far this cycle to announce his retirement -- Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Kit Bond of Missouri and Sam Brownback of Kansas preceded him.

Brownback's seat should be safe for Republicans, but Florida, Missouri and Ohio are all competitive states for Democrats. In 2006, Ohio elected Democrats by double-digit margins for governor and senator; in 2008, Obama won the state by 4 points, and Democrats picked up three House seats, giving them control of 10 of the state's 18 House seats.

Former Rep. Rob Portman (R) is already moving toward a bid, The Fix reports, while the Democratic field is still unclear.

*Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL) is throwing his hat in the ring for the state's open-seat race for Senate. Meek was an active HRC backer in the Democratic primaries. His entry comes as many in the state wait to see what CFO Alex Sink decides. Sink is the only Democrat in statewide office.

*Hardly high praise from Gov. Paterson on Caroline Kennedy, whom he met with this weekend. "She didn't eliminate herself in the meeting," he said.

*An interesting nugget in Ohio, where the state GOP chairman endorses incumbent Mike Duncan, and not his party's last gubernatorial nominee, Ken Blackwell. It should be pointed out, though, that the two clashed often, with Bennett saying during the 2006 election that Blackwell was "burning down the house" to win the primary.

**Sports Alert: Gov. Ed Rendell, we all know, will be rooting for the Eagles even in a potential Super Bowl versus the Steelers. And he warns about Pennsylvanians flooding Florida. "Governor Crist is a friend of mine, so I will offer to send the Pennsylvania National Guard down to help."

--Kyle Trygstad and Mike Memoli