Drama, drama, drama! The opening day of the 114th Congress was anything but boring today, as Roland Burris was denied entry to the Senate amid a media circus.

Burris, the pick of embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill Barack Obama’s Senate seat, showed up at the Capitol Tuesday, planning to be sworn in with the rest of the senators. 

Senate Democrats had warned that if Burris showed up to be sworn in without the signature of the Illinois secretary of state, he would be turned away. And that’s exactly what happened.

"My credentials were not in order, I will not be accepted, I will not be seated," Burris, 71, told reporters.

The former Illinois attorney general said he was "not seeking to have any type of confrontation" over taking the seat. But Burris also said he was considering a federal lawsuit to force Senate Democrats to seat him, making good on his lawyer’s promise earlier this week.

Barring Burris from the Senate is "against the law of this land," his lawyer, Timothy W. Wright, told reporters.

"We were not allowed to be placed in the record books," Wright said. "We were not allowed to proceed to the floor; all of which we think is improperly done and against the law of the land."

The whole scene became such a zoo that security officers at one point had to clear a path for Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who was headed inside. 

Burris, who would be the Senate’s only black member, is supposed to meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, and others tomorrow, to negotiate how, exactly, he can get into the chamber, if at all. He has consistently said he should not be held responsible for any of Blagojevich’s alleged activities in trying to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder. 

The man’s got hope, though. As of today, he’s still calling himself "the junior senator from Illinois."

Here’s video of Burris’s brief press conference today: