Congress And The NCAA Tournament

No satellite needed, no trip to the local bar to hopefully watch the game, no scoreboard watching to see how your team was doing.

In the Senate Radio TV Gallery, we have one common area where reporters and video technicians (cameramen) can work and wait for their next assignments.  It had four TV's and all four were always tuned into the games.

The Senate's in session?  Who needs it?  Breaking news on CNN?  Go downstairs and watch that!

I remember the room would be packed as one group of games on Thursdays and Fridays would wind down to a stunning conclusion.  Reporters, Congressional staffers and sometimes Senators would stick their head in to see what was going on.

It also never failed that around NCAA tournament time, then Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) would always seem to have a news conference where he would always get asked his favorite for the championship.

(Bradley was certainly the right guy to ask, since he had 58 points against Wichita State in the 1965 NCAA tourney while playing at Princeton.)

But alas, all good things come to an end and after the Senate instituted tougher rules on gifts in the late 1990s, the CBS feeds stopped, because it was seen as something that might not be kosher under the new gift rules.

It was about that time that I got ahold of one of those satellite dishes that let you watch the whole tournament - every game on a different channel.

Then I decided that every first Friday of the NCAA's is a good day not to think about politics, the Congress or news of any kind.  Just basketball.