Inaugural Tickets: Get 'em while you can

Wapo reports that $20K inaugural tickets are for sale, as Congress debates whether scalping tickets should be a crime.

Selling tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony on the National Mall isn't a crime. At least not yet.

Earlier this week, the Senate unanimously passed legislation to criminalize the scalping of next Tuesday's inaugural tickets. The bill, which would make it a misdemeanor to sell or try to sell tickets to the swearing-in ceremony or create fake tickets, now heads to the House for approval.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, has pledged to require everyone receiving a ticket from her office to promise not to re-sell the passes, or risk having them revoked.

"The Presidential Inauguration is one of the most important rituals of our democracy," Feinstein said in a statement. "The chance to witness it should not be bought and sold like tickets to a sporting event. These tickets are free and they should remain free for the American people."

The committee is distributing 240,000 free tickets through congressional offices, most of which have held lotteries or figured out other methods to give away tickets to constituents (those without tickets can watch the ceremony on one of nearly two dozen Jumbotrons).

Some well-known sporting and entertainment ticket Web sites, such as StubHub and eBay, have agreed not to sell Inauguration Day tickets. But others are still taking part in the lucrative trade.

Inside Sports & Entertainment Group, a New York-based marketing group specializing in hard-to-get tickets for events such as the Oscars and the Super Bowl, is still offering high-priced passes for Obama's swearing-in ceremony, including a $20,000 ticket for a VIP "yellow" area complete with a color-coded map showing how close they can get to the historic event.

An Inside Sports & Entertainment e-mail sent to The Post indicated that swearing-in tickets run $1,750 each for the reserved standing room area behind the Reflecting Pool, $5,500 each for the preferred standing room area in front of the Reflecting Pool and $20,000 each for the VIP area, where there are not necessarily seats.

Hummm ... so what do you think? Should it be a crime to scalp tickets to the inauguration? In tough economic times should we fault people who would trade a glimpse of history for cold hard cash? Inquiring minds want to know.