Politicians love a good photo op and great, free and positive publicity among their voters.
Few situations present themselves more maximizing moments than when local sports teams enter big sports events. It's commonplace to have governors or senators from competing teams make friendly wagers on their teams in the name of civic pride. For example, governors from the home states of teams competing in the Super Bowl or World Series routinely make bets with one another. The media eats these things up.
No other event captures the passion of the entire nation for a long period of time like March Madness. And since the current state of affairs, literally and figuratively, of New York governors is ripe with delicious sex scandals, let's have some fun.
New York State has two teams in the men's tournament and three in the women's tournament. New York State also has one governor who resigned because he got caught in a prostitution ring and one governor who admits on a daily basis that he's had affairs with other women.
Yeah, you see where I'm going here. So let's go!
Men's tournament bets
No. 14 Cornell vs. No. 3 Stanford
Gov. David Paterson bets his cell phone contact list, while California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bets his unpublished insider guide to groping women.
No. 13 Siena vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt
Gov. David Paterson bets Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen a weekend in New York, including top-notch accommodations, two tickets to any Broadway show and two dozen New York bagels for Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones' cell phone number.
Women's tournament games
No. 16 Cornell vs. No. 1 UConn
Gov. Paterson bets free E-ZPass for a month, while if the Huskies don't win, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell draws chips for everyone in Paterson's entourage at Mohegan Sun and lets them all "pull a Fredo."
No. 7 Syracuse vs. No. 10 Hartford
If the Hawks win, Gov. Paterson must produce two tickets to last home games at both Yankee and Mets games. But, if the Orange win, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell draws chips for everyone in Paterson's entourage at Foxwoods Casino and lets them all "pull a Fredo."
No. 7 Marist vs. No. 10 DePaul
Should DePaul win, Gov. Paterson would take the train to Chicago and decree that deep-dish pizza is the world's real pizza. If Marist wins, Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich must come to Times Square and decree New York style pizza is the best, and pay for two hookers for Paterson.