Those of us who love to watch government "as it happens" are fans of C-SPAN , the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network which broadcasts government proceedings and public affairs programming. True afficiandos can now watch archival C-SPAN broadcasts via the C-SPAN Video Library at

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/

The site currently has more than 160,000 hours of footage dating back to 1987. There are also about 10,000 hours of pre-1987 footage which will be formatted for the Web and added at a later date. The advanced search option allows searching by name, date, topic, and other options. Want to see the Clinton Impeachment hearings? Karl Rove testifying? It's all there.

Be prepared for a time lag before the search results appear.