While most Americans spent this weekend doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, the Senate spent Saturday and Sunday debating and voting on amendments to the START treaty, the DREAM Act and the repeal of the Defense Department's dont ask, dont tell policy.

This week saw members of Congress riding on a crazy roller coaster that ended when the House voted to pass the global tax agreement early Friday morning by a vote of 277 to 148, thereby sending the bill to the president for his signature.

The Senate will conduct the first test vote Monday on the global tax agreement. The 3 p.m. cloture vote requires at least 60 votes for the Senate to advance the bill further in Congress.

Members of Congress started out this week conducting symbolic political votes in order to pay back their Democratic base for their support in the past election. The Senate voted and failed to advance the following bills:

The Senate met in an unusual Saturday session to vote on two tax proposals doomed to fail from the start.

The Senate and House spent much of this week behind closed doors discussing the tax deductions that will expire in a few weeks. These Bush tax cuts that became law in 2001 and 2003 number in the 60s.

Congress reconvenes for the second leg of its lame-duck session on Monday with a long to-do list. As with any to-do list come dates by which the chores need to be completed.

This Thanksgiving holiday cant come early enough for the current members of Congress -- but not for the reasons you might think. They want us, the American people, to turn our focus to family, friends, faith, and off of them.

The first of the two-legged, two-staged, lame-duck session of Congress begins Monday, and it consists of mostly wounded ducks. These winged fowl would love nothing more than to duck the huge legislative agenda that awaits them.

Elections have consequences, and I won. Remember that quote from our president? He said it just three days after he took the helm as our president.