WASHINGTON — The Senate put Washington's massive shift of power on public display Tuesday when senators convened for the opening of the 111th session of Congress.

There, for example, was a tanned and grinning Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who — oddly — was sworn in to a seventh Senate term, his new job notwithstanding. He'll resign from the Senate before he's sworn into higher office with President-elect Barack Obama at the end of the month, ending eight years of the Bush administration.

Biden brought the biggest Bible — an ancient, leather-bound volume about six inches thick that a spokeswoman said has been in the family since 1893.

He held it by his side as the man he'll succeed, Vice President Dick Cheney, swore him in to the Senate. Biden will use it to take the oath of office this month as Obama's vice president, said his spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander.

And in the back of the chamber, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton, still the junior senator from New York, chatted quietly with her seatmate, interior secretary-designate Ken Salazar of Colorado.

Present, too, was Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader from South Dakota, tapped by Obama to be secretary of health and human services. He was there to escort Sen. Tim Johnson, also of South Dakota, to be sworn in.

Signifying a Senate era gone-by were several retiring lions of the chamber, including Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator in history, celebrated with customary eloquence a half-century of service in the Senate.

He said he's loved every minute of serving in a chamber he called the "morning and evening star in the American constitutional constellation."

"I look forward — yes, I look forward — to the next 50 years," he finished. "Amen. Amen!"