You might be able to rent your living quarters for Inauguration weekend at wildly inflated prices — but you can forget about selling a ticket to the Inauguration ceremony on eBay. So says Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who, according to the Post, contacted eBay, StubHub, and other ticket resale sites last week to inform them that she plans on drafting legislation to criminalize such sales. (And yes, Feinstein’s even gotten through to your shifty friend Craig, who was apparently selling tickets for as much as $40,000. Yikes.) The legislation could potentially be introduced during Congress’ upcoming lame-duck session.

In other news, Inauguration planners are significantly cutting the amount of bleacher seating along the parade route from the Capitol to the White House. In 2005, there were approximately 20,000 bleacher seats along Pennsylvania Avenue; that number is expected to drop to 8,700 in January. The action will mean more room for free standing space on the sidewalks leading to the Capitol. The bleacher reduction is a direct result of a lawsuit after 2005’s ceremony in which ANSWER claimed that they lacked sufficient space to protest the Iraq War.

Tickets for the upcoming Inauguration’s bleacher seats have yet to go on sale. The National Park Service claims that whatever seats go unsold will be opened to the public for free “10 minutes before the parade begins.” 10 minutes? Yeah, that probably won’t cause any sort of logistical problems.

Speaking of bleacher seating, the Post’s new Inauguration Watch blog — helmed by Post Metro reporters David Nakamura and Nikita Stewart — reports that Mayor Fenty and the D.C. City Council are bickering over the Council’s ticket allocation. The Council is slated to receive 30 of the Mayor’s Office’s set of 150, but this is nothing new for D.C. — apparently Obama’s swearing-in is just as hot a ticket for the D.C. Council as Hannah Montana concerts.

Photo by philliefan99.