With all the hubub over Congress lately - specifically, their inability to get anything done, I thought a new version of the game Clue was in order.  There are tons of versions of Monopoly these days but it seems that Clue has been neglected despite how easy it would be to "personalize" for any given city/workplace/group of people.

  

Well, here's my take on Congressional Clue.  It's easy to make - cards for characters and weapons can be cheaply made with index cards and a real Clue game board can be easily converted via paper and tape (or, if your are up for it, buy some poster board and make it yourself. Game pieces can be made with almost anything you want to stick labels on.  Rooms, characters and weapons can be personalized as you like.  The end result is pretty ghetto, but then so is Congress.

Congressional Clue

Board

·        Rooms

1.     Congressional Hall

2.     Brothel

3.     Backroom

4.     Bar

5.     Back Alley

6.     Political Talk Shows/News

7.     Press Conference

8.     Rally

9.     Abandoned Building/Parking Garage

Cards/Tokens

·        Characters

1.     President

2.     Speaker of the House

3.     House Majority Leader

4.     House Minority Leader

5.     Senate Majority Leader

6.     Senate Minority Leader

7.     Influential Non-leader Republican

8.     Influential Non-Leader Democrat

9.      Lobbyist

·        Weapons (descriptions stolen largely from Wikipedia - forgive my laziness)

1.      Straw Man—a fallacy based on a misrepresentation of the opposition’s position.  To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man"), and to refute it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.

2.      Scandal—a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages (or tries to damage) the reputation of an institution, individual or creed.

3.      Filibuster—talking for hours on end without support of a break.  These days no actual filibuster need take place, just the threat of one is enough.

4.      Crocodile Tears—false or insincere display of emotion, often used in conjunction with other weapons, the proper use of crocodile tears is often enough to sway support on their own.

5.      Money—either by paying off the opposition or by paying for advertising to gain support for your position.

6.      Blackmail— an act, often a crime, involving unjustified (or justified) threats to make a gain or cause loss to another unless a demand is met.

7.      Religion—claiming that a bill is against your religion, repressive of your religion or simply immoral; completely making up the argument would be a Straw Man

8.      Science—claiming that a bill is contrary to current science, hampers science or will have harmful consequences based on current scientific knowledge; completely making up the argument would be a Straw Man.

9.      Rider—an additional provision added to a bill or other measure under the consideration by a legislature, having little connection with the subject matter of the bill.  While often intended to get legislation passed that would not get support on its own, riders can lead to the killing of bills due to outrage at their subjects or even the sheer numbers of them.