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I know, I know. Breaking news: Democrats don't like President Trump.

But for just one day every four-to-eight years actually, for less than an hour of one day every four-to-eight eyars America's leaders typically try to set aside their differences and celebrate the peaceful transfer of power that defines U.S. democracy.

Somecongressional Democrats did their best to honor that tradition.

Here's Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) marveling at the symbolism of the moment.

And some House Democrats and Republicansmade a point to take a picture together.

After Trump's speech, Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) offered her congratulations to Trump and offeredto find areas of common ground.

But a significant number ofDemocrats mostly House Democrats took no break from the partisan rancor before, during or after Trump's inauguration. In fact, they arguably elevated it.

Trump'sspeech, a wholesale repudiation of power in Washington, had barely finished echoing across the Mall when some Democrats started tweeting(irony, noted) about howmuch they hated it. No, despised it. No, absolutely loathed it.

Other Democrats immediately assumed their fight stance.

And those, we can assume, were somewhat filtered tweets. Here's former congressman Steve Israel, who retired last year, telling us how he really feels:

Trump's inauguration was already taking place under extraordinary partisan circumstances. Some 70 House Democrats boycotted it. What surprised historians and political scientists was not the volume of boycotts but the manner in which these Democrats were boycotting: By essentially tellingtheir new president to go to hell.

I respectfully decline to freeze my ass out there in the cold for his particular ceremony, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) told Oregon Public Broadcasting.

As I pointed out earlier this week, there's a political reason for much of the colorful language Democrats are lobbing at Trump.

Trump is assuming the White House as one of the least-popular presidents in modern memory, and many of these Democrats represent deeply liberal districts, places where they're more concerned about a primary challenger to the left than a viable Republican opponent.Skipping Trump's inauguration aftercalling him a childand then immediately deriding his inauguration speech is one way to fly your liberal flag.

The question now is whether this behavior is unique to Trump's inaugurationor if it will become the new normal in Washington, even beyond Trump. If it's the latter, we could be in for an acrimonious, Twitter-fueled new political dynamic.

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These Democrats just threw Olympic-grade shade all over Trump's inauguration speech - Washington Post