Real-Life Frank Underwood: Backroom Machiavellis of the 20th Century

Separating Netflix's House of Cards from its antihero, Frank Underwood, would be like taking the bull out of bullfighting. Kevin Spacey's scheming congressman has turned the show into a national phenomenon, and the character serves as both a counterpoint and stressor for how we see our politicians: Underwood is ruthless and effective, but he's also corrupt, unscrupulous, and a serious weirdo.

The show takes place in a sort of coked-out version of DC, where congressmen act like mob bosses and journalists like spies. But it does raise the question of whether there are precedents in real-life Washington for Underwood's kind of backhanded, behind-the-scenes power maneuvering. While it's unlikely that any of these actual human beings ever ________ a girl in front of a __________ (spoiler free!) but they have their own kinds of skeletons.

Sam Rayburn
No representative has ever served longer as the Speaker of the House than Sam Rayburn, a Democrat from Texas who was in the position for 17 years, the longest tenure in US history. As Speaker, Rayburn was known for working other congressmen privately, mastering the art of the backroom deal, and his methods of persuasion and compromise were so effective that the far-left of his party criticized him for working too often with Republicans, despite his generally liberal politics. In Rayburn's obit, the New York Times described him as a "bald, blocky Texan, puffing a cigarette in one of his relaxed moods," which is a terrific way to be described.

He was famous among lawmakers for his Board of Education meetings, where Democratic leadership would drink bourbon, play cards, and strategize—invitations to the meetings were highly sought after, and attendees included Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson. Rayburn also played a major role in shepherding the rise of Johnson, a fellow Texan, to the White House. After serving as permanent chairman of three straight Democrat National Conventions, he stepped down to be LBJ's floor manager in 1960, the year that Johnson ultimately became Kennedy's running mate.

Rahm Emanuel
A notorious backroom pitbull, Rahm Emanuel is perhaps the closest living embodiment of Underwood, except without the restraint. Emanuel has been a fixture in Democratic politics since the 1990s, helping Bill Clinton get elected to the White House. As Clinton's chief campaign fundraiser, Emanuel raised enough money to help Clinton overcome attacks about his extramarital affairs; later, in the White House, he spearheaded campaigns to bully Congress on NAFTA, health care reform, and anti-crime legislation.

Like Underwood, Rahmbo was also kind of a motherfucker. Famously, he once a pollster a dead fish in abox when he was late with results. A Clinton speechwriter once remembered that the most powerful thing you could precede a statement with during that administration was, "Rahm says." And after Clinton's win in 1996, as his team sat around celebrating, Emanuel got up, took a knife, and starting yelling the names of people he believed had betrayed them, plunging the knife into the table and yelling,"DEAD" after each name. Now the mayor of Chicago, Emanuel is focusing his manic political energy on browbeating the city into electing him for a second term.

James A. Baker III
James Baker is one of the most important backroom men in the Republican Party's Reagan-Bush dynasty, playing a singular role in shaping foreign policy in the last quarter of the 21 st Century. As Reagan's chief of staff and then Secretary of the Treasury, and later as Secretary of State and then chief of staff for Bush Sr., Baker was so powerful that a number of other Republicans even led an effort to see him removed from the Reagan administration because they suspected him of sabotaging conservative efforts. Obviously, they failed.

Baker's biggest machinations involved the Middle East. He was a leading critic of Saddam Hussein, helping to orchestrate Operation Desert Storm, and reportedly declaring he would wipe the regime off the face of the earth if there were any evidence of Iraq using chemical weapons against Kuwait. He also played a major role in preventing the creation of a Palestinian state by threatening to cut funding to any international organization that recognized Palestine.

Although Baker is now 84, that hasn't stopped him from haunting the smoke-filled back rooms of Republican politics, now as a senior foreign policy advisor to Jeb Bush's nascent presidential campaign.

Ted Kennedy
While the name alone suggests authority, Edward "Ted" Kennedy often gets shortchanged next to his brothers John and Robert. But during nearly 40 years as a Democrat senator from Massachusetts, the youngest and longest-surviving Kennedy brother became one of the most influential men in government, until his death in 2009, briefly serving as Majority Whip and writing more than 300 bills that were passed into law.

Kennedy's time in politics was not spent peacefully. Jimmy Carter still blames him for having defeated the healthcare reform bill he proposed while in the White House, claiming in 2010 that the recently deceased Kennedy did so out of personal spite and a desire to prevent Carter from a major success so that he could take over as president himself. Kennedy did eventually challenge the sitting president for their party's nomination in 1980, taking his campaign all the way to the floor of the Democratic National Convention, but ultimately lost.

He also bore some hallmarks of the notoriety that has characterized his family. In 1969, a passenger in a car Kennedy was driving died when he accidentally drove off a bridge. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, and the incident likely kept him from becoming president. Frank Underwood is a fictional character, and to compare the things that happen to him on a TV show to an incident in which a real human died would be insane, but the Chappaquiddick Incident, as it's known, definitely has some HOC undertones.

Caspar Weinberger
Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, Weinberger had his hands in most of the major scandals we associate with that administration. A major backer of Star Wars—Reagan's doomed attempt to develop a missile-defense system that would exist partially in space—Weinberger pushed his own deep distrust of the Soviet Union onto the White House and the military, even as others in the administration were starting to feel a little more conciliatory. This great line about Mikhail Gorbachev pretty much sums up Weinberger's views: "I don't think just because he wears Gucci shoes and smiles occasionally that the Soviet Union has changed its basic doctrines."

As Secretary of Defense, Weinberger also oversaw the largest peacetime increase in military spending in American history. His shadiest dealings, though, involved the Iran-Contra scandal, which, for those of you not brushed up on your late Cold War history, involved Reagan administration officials conspiring to sell arms to Iran and then use the proceeds to fund a rebellion against the socialist government of Nicaragua. Weinberger resigned before the trial, but was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, after the commission investigating the ordeal accused him of trying to hide nearly two thousand notebooks that might have held evidence implicating Reagan and himself in the arms deal. President George H.W. Bush eventually pardoned Weinberger before he stood trial.

Arthur Vandenberg
Vandenberg went from being a newspaper editor-in-chief to a Republican senator from Michigan, which is such a hilarious transition that it makes me want to run for office out of pure joy. Notorious for his isolationism leading up to Pearl Harbor, Vandenberg eventually conceded to the American war effort after the Japanese attack, and, because of this earlier position, his conversion to internationalism became a major world event: the Senate website's obit refers to it as the "speech heard round the world."

Vandenberg's influence in Congress had a significant impact—both positive and negative—on the sitting presidents of the time. Prior to World War II, he was a major opponent of FDR's New Deal efforts, and he led the successful opposition to FDR's attempts to pack the Supreme Court. After the war, he played a major role in gaining support for Truman's attempts to rebuild the global economy, and reposition the US geopolitically. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he gathered bipartisan support for the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and NATO. When Truman turned to him for advice on how to deal with the rising power of the Soviet Union, Vandenberg advised the president to "make a personal appearance before Congress and scare the hell out of the American people."

Follow Kevin on Twitter