Not, God knows, my brackets. (About which more in a minute.)

Yesterday, South Dakota State University’s women’s team won its first-ever NCAA game. Jennifer Warkenthien had a double-double, with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

She’s the player I wrote about earlier — the one who lost her mother at an early age, lost her father this year, and has basically been adopted by the entire state. Apparently she also has a terrific inside game.

On the painful subject of my brackets, well, let’s just say I basically went 0-for-Minneapolis (site of many regional games). One competition in which I am entered gamely told me this morning that I was in the “top 100 percent.” Ouch.

“WilliamShakespeare says By the Lord, a buck-basket! rammed me in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings,… ”
Tweets from the Bard and 24 other metaphysically challenged luminaries.

There’s a new blog in Virginia (and no, I’m not going to link to it) dedicated to defeating one of the candidates for statewide office. It seems to confirm some of the very worst ideas people have about blogs.

Whenever I talk with other elected officials about blogging, their reaction is always the same. “How can you take the risk? Don’t you get a lot of vituperation and profanity on your blog?”

And the answer is always the same. No. Readers of this blog (and frankly of most Virginia political blogs) are strong-minded and able to express their ideas clearly. I can’t count the number of comments that have begun, “You’re wrong about X.”

Sometimes, I’ve changed my mind after reading the comments. Sometimes, the commenter and I have engaged in a dialogue. Sometimes (e.g., Jim Hoeft) the commenter and I have become quite friendly, all the while agreeing to disagree.

But I have never felt that the disagreements we’ve engaged in were either nasty or personal. In two years, we have posted virtually every comment that has appeared here. (We don’t much go for anonymity, but other than that we’re pretty wide open.)

So my reaction to this new blog is sadness as much as anything else. The comments are beyond the bounds.

Blogs are a great way to engage in debate and discussion. Blogs like this will actually make other elected officials more reluctant to engage with bloggers. And that would be too bad.

So I’m not the only one who sees that the NCAA is a lot like politics. That’s the theme of a hilarious story on Politico today. Sample observation: “Incumbency matters. Long-shot candidates remain long-shot candidates both on the court and on the way to Capitol Hill.”

UPDATE: It’s no secret that I am a big fan of the President. But how nice he has picked the Heels to go all the way. Me, too.

I estimate that American productivity falls significantly this month. Everyone I know is filling out brackets.

So now it’s the old heart vs. head conflict. North Dakota State? (Actually, there are those who think NDSU could go a few rounds.) Minnesota? (Maybe not so much, but Rick Barnes’ teams usually fold like lawn chairs.) Could VCU wear a glass slipper by defeating UCLA?

For a hoops lover, this week is better than Christmas — because you just get present after present.

Time tells us: “. . .what began with college students has found its fullest, richest expression with us, the middle-aged.” My favorite reason is #9: “We don’t understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us.”

One of the lesser-known items on the job description of a General Assembly member is “Wallpaper.” That’s where you appear at a press event to serve as part of the scenery. You don’t have a speaking role — rather, your job is to provide a supportive backdrop to the event going on in front of you.

One such Wallpaper event occurred yesterday. Along with about a dozen other members of the House and Senate, I drove down to Croc’s Restaurant in Virginia Beach to participate in Governor Kaine’s signing ceremony for the bills banning smoking in Virginia restaurants. The bills were sponsored in the Senate by Ralph Northam, a Democrat from Norfolk, and in the House by John Cosgrove, a Republican from Chesapeake. John’s remarks highlighted why the Republican House, which had killed smoking bills in previous years, had come around to support a smoking ban this session: he said as he went door-to-door in the neighborhoods of his Republican-leaning district, his constituents would tell him, “John, we love what you’re doing down there — but when are you going to do something about smoking?”

With my cell phone camera, I got a shot of the Governor signing the bills in front of me. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that the Virginian-Pilot took a picture of the tableau, making it appear that I was checking my email rather than attending to my wallpaper duties.

Getting home is tough. There are all the chores one postponed during Session. (Can anyone say, “Laundry”?)

There are conference calls with candidates, both declared and undeclared. There are speeches that one promised to give. There are petitions to be signed and money to be raised and fundraisers to attend and doors to be knocked.

And, just as it all seems too overwhelming for words, here comes Tournament Week. Followed by Selection Sunday. Followed by the best four days in a basketball lover’s life–the Round of 64 and the Round of 32.

Like it’s not bad enough to lose an hour of sleep tonight.

Now comes word that, “In the spring, there is a clear statistically significant increase in the risk of suffering a heart attack.”

Of this job is the chance to meet political leaders from other states and countries. Today, I spent some time with Ferdos Ameen, a young political leader in Iraq.

Ferdos has been here for three months, working with the National Democratic Institute. She received the Andi Parhamovich fellowship, named in memory of an NDI staffer who was killed in Baghdad.

Ferdos has been working to bring more women into the political process in Iraq. She and others like her are on the very front lines of democracy.