ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Fantasy Congress: ‘Cause The Real One Sucks
The only sport The Stiletto will watch is baseball – and even then, it’s gotta be Yankee baseball. She finds football unintelligible, mostly because there is a commercial break after every play and she keeps losing the thread of the game because of all the interruptions. Fotbal? Fuhgeddaboudit! Golf? Don’t go there.
Same with fantasy sports leagues. The Stiletto could care less. But now, four students at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California have come up with Fantasy Congress for wonkish types and those for whom politics is a passion (as you know, The Stiletto is less about policy and more about passion).
The New York Times explains how it works:
Just as in fantasy football or baseball, each player picks a team — in this case, 4 senators and 12 House members of varying seniority levels — and competes with other players in a league typically managed by a friend or a co-worker. Members determine whether to play for money or the thrill of victory. But that is where the similarities end.
On the Fantasy Congress Web site leagues have names like "We the Peeps" and "Foley4Prez," in addition to the usual school and workplace affiliations.
Players accumulate points as the legislators they have chosen go about their business on Capitol Hill. A House member or senator earns five points for introducing a bill or an amendment, and more points for negotiating successfully each step in the legislative process.
Players can change their team members once a week, so if a scandal-plagued lawmaker resigns there is an opportunity to pick someone new. As of now, legislators can be on multiple teams within a league, but the site’s creators plan to introduce an exclusivity rule that would limit a legislator to playing for only one team.
When she has the time, The Stiletto will give this a whirl, and offer regular updates on how her team is doing.
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