Sen. Jack Reed stands wide-eyed and unsmiling on page 103, clutching a rolled up document in his left hand. Rhode Island's senior senator takes up the full page. On the opposite page is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

They are two of "Obama's people," according to yesterday's photo spread in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.

They are key figures in the administration, nominees for cabinet positions, speech writers and even a few quirky insiders such as the White House social director. According to the editor's letter, they also include "those legislators who are likely to prove influential in helping to usher into law what the new administration sets out to do."

Aside from those being nominated for cabinet positions, the spread featured three other sitting senators in addition to Reed and Reid: Sen. Claire McCaskill, of Missouri; Sen. Bob Casey, of Pennsylvania; and Majority Whip Dick Durbin.