Here is an apparently common scene today from the U.S. Senate’s first session to attempt to mark up a budget for the first time in almost three years (we’re nearly a week away from the official anniversary of the last time the Democratic Party-controlled body acted to do so, as they are required to do by law):

Townhall’s Guy Benson explains:

What you’re looking at is a view of today’s Senate Budget Committee meeting, at which Chairman Kent Conrad conducted a faux “markup” of his party’s FY 2013 budget resolution. The near side of the table is where Democrats were supposed to sit. Granted, this entire exercise was somewhat academic because its resulting product would receive neither a vote in this committee, nor in the Senate at large. Details! Throughout much of the session, all 11 Republican members were present to, you know, do their jobs. Of the 12 committee Democrats, no more than 3 or 4 were in attendance at any given time, according to sources inside the meeting. “[The Democrats] showed absolutely no interest in discussing our big picture problems or offering solutions,” a GOP budget aide tells Townhall. “Those who were there showed up only to make a brief statement for the record, then took off. The photo speaks for itself.”

We don’t expect much good to ever come out of Washington D.C., but we at least expect elected officials to attend their photo ops….