Monroe (
@moth) asked me to post this – so, without further ado:
A HOUSE OF CARDS DIVIDED CANNOT STAND, Part One
By Monroe
Based on the novel series House of Cards by Michael Dobbs, and its adaptations by the BBC and Netflix.
2013—2013: Gov. Andrew Navarre (MI)/Sen. Hal Colson (FL) (Democratic)
def. 2012 (345): Pres. Frank Mystrom (WI)/Veep Lewis Hart (UT) (Republican) - 193, Mayor Russell Young (CA)/Sue White Hawk (SD) (Green Party) - 0
2012 Senatorial elections: Democrats - 57 (+9), Republicans 43 (-9)
2012 House elections: Democrats - 263 (+22), Republicans - 172 (-21), Independent - 0 (-1)
It began on New Year’s Day, 2013. The Democratic Party was flushed with triumph, Michigan Governor Andrew Navarre winning the Presidency while the party seized both Houses of Congress. For Senator Frank Olsen of Alaska, Democratic Whip in the Senate whose endorsement had secured Navarre his primary win, this trifecta was a prime opportunity to radically transform America. An admirer of FDR and LBJ, for Olsen there was but one truth: that if the holders of power do not wield it for progress, then they may as well not wield it. For his part in securing Navarre his victory, Olsen was promised to be made Secretary of the Treasury, a power that he planned to wield gladly. “I’m sorry, Franky,” he was told by the President-elect at a special conference of the Transition Team on New Years Day, “but you’re more important to me in the Senate.” To be passed over is one thing; to be passed over for Francis Mayfair, a bland Keynesian economist, Navarre campaign donor, and, importantly, a man whose vision to wield the awesome might of the U.S. Treasury was no more inspired than that of his Republican predecessor was an insult. When Olsen would rage to his wife, Jane, about this injustice she simply asked: “and what are you going to do about it?”
Matthias ‘Matty’ Baxter was the new political correspondent for the District Observer, a second rate outfit for second rate journalists. Having stepped off the train from Bismarck, North Dakota, he would live in the suburbs with his uncle, DNC Vice Chair (and cocaine addict) Roger Baxter. With the self-imposed millstone of securing a career establishing scoop around his neck, Matty attended party functions with his uncle, making a steady living reporting on the (sanitised) minutiae of the Democrats election campaign and its victory. At the DNC New Years eve party his uncle introduced him to Sen. Frank Olsen and Marty was smitten. A few days later, Olsen asked him to come to his townhouse- alone. Jane Olsen had left D.C. to attend to relatives in Alaska for the new years.
Over vodka and tonics, Olsen admitted to being an admirer of Matty’s work, a keen reader of the Observer ever since he first landed in Washington. Flattered, Matty admitted that he is in turn an admirer of Olsen’s, recalling his record on the Committee of Appropriations, and citing his support for the social welfare programmes that allowed his family to escape poverty. That night they made love, and over pillow talk Olsen offered to give Matty a scoop: that the Class 2 Democratic Senator from Texas, Lawrence Rust, had conducted insider trading.
Passing Matty whispers over the pillow, Olsen turned his attention to Roger Baxter. His newfound relationship with Matty is not one sided; as much as he may have given to Matty, Matty returned the favour in the form of revelations over Roger’s addiction. Although it was known he had been a coke fiend in the 90s and 00s, it was largely unknown that he had failed to kick his habit. At the DNC’s Inauguration Eve soiree, Olsen confronted Roger over his addiction, and blackmailed him into sabotaging the Senate hearing of Burt Taney, Navarre’s choice for Secretary of State, by leaking potential conflicts of interests to the Washington Post (Roger forgoing the District Observer in an attempt to hide his tracks). As Taney withdrew his nomination, Olsen pushed for Roger to suggest the Democrats retiring Senate Leader (and an ally of Olsen) Art Meier, who Navarre accepted.
With his pieces now in play, Olsen began his real manoeuvres: to depose Vice President Hal Colson. Although a close friend of Colson’s from their time in the Senate- indeed, it was on Olsen’s advice that Navarre choose Colson as his running-mate- Olsen had no scruples in doing what he felt he had to do. Colson’s brother, Chris, was an alcoholic who had spent the better part of a decade in a rum fuelled haze. While never publicly embarrassing Colson, privately between Senator and Whip, Olsen had become aware that Colson found himself personally responsible for Chris’ addiction, and feared that his taking of the Vice Presidency would only push Chris deeper into troubles.
Through a liqueured Meier, Olsen learns that Navarre had informed his Cabinet that he was planning on issuing a federal grant to the chemical company EcoLake. Posing as as Chris Colson under order of Olsen, Roger bought stocks in EcoLake. Olsen would in turn make Matty aware of this, with the District Observer implicating the Vice President in insider trading. With a firestorm of a scandal brewing, and feeling personally responsible although not guilty, Hal Colson resigned in disgrace. He would be the shortest serving Vice President to neither resign in office or ascend to the Presidency.
2013: Pres. Andrew Navarre (MI)/vacant (Democratic)
With Hal Colson gone, under the 25th Amendment Navarre had to nominate a candidate for the Office of Vice President. Although any selection would pass through Congress with ease, Navarre still sought counsel. Through Meier and Roger, Olsen was made a prime candidate. But Mayfair dissented, distrusting the Alaskan and instead naming of Ernest Fox, a moderate Senator from Pennsylvania. Made aware of his competition by Roger, with the help of his senior advisor, Jim Stamper, Olsen made his move against Fox, pressuring Roger into persuading his personal assistant, Patricia Washington, to having a one-night stand with Fox. Washington did so, and Olsen passed a recording of the two to Matty before he left for Camp David. But feeling a sense of loyalty for Washington, and disgust at how he was being used, Matty instead destroyed the tape. Olsen would only become aware of this betrayal once, arriving at Camp David on Navarre invitation, he saw Ernest Fox smoking by the pool.
The night prior, Olsen had opted to close the ‘loose end’. After arriving at Jim Stamper’s apartment with the tape of Washington and Fox, Roger was inconsolable. He had hurt a woman he cared deeply for, and pressured her into sex for the political gain of a man who never intended to let him go. Stamper consoled him, but Roger was furious. He knew what Olsen was doing, and no longer wanted any part of it. Always the image of the Samaritan, Stamper allowed him to stay for the night, and encouraged him to secretly spirit himself to Stamper’s holiday home in Cape Cod to detox. And while Roger was sleeping, Stamper found the cocaine in his belongs and laced it with rat poison. The next day, as Olsen travelled into the Catoctin Mountain Park, Roger stopped at a gas station in New Jersey. Cause of death was written off as a junkie’s misadventure. As police peeled Roger’s body off the toilet stall floor, at Camp David Olsen was in distress. On the cusp of being only a heartbeat away from the Presidency, and now his lover had betrayed him. All his plans, all his hopes, it was over.
And then something odd happened: Fox declined. While flattered by the President’s offer, he would feel that there was only one man who could take the mantle of the Vice Presidency: Frank Olsen.
With Fox departing, Navarre and a stunned Olsen sat down in private. Naverre revealed that he suspected Olsen was somehow behind the fall of Colson. Although he had no proof, he knew that what had happened to Hal was somehow this Alaskan’s doing, and that it would be better to keep Olsen close under a more watchful eye than to allow him to run amok in the Senate. Officially asking Olsen to become his Vice President, Olsen accepted, with a plan quickly made for him to resign that evening with his nomination declared for the morning.
As he returned home, Jane called ahead to tell him that she was coming home as well. Secretly Olsen met with Matty in the D.C. Metro, hiding from the cameras. Matty would break the news of Rogers death, and that he knew that Olsen was responsible, Washington having spilled her heart to him and revealed how Roger made her sleep with Fox. He also reasoned that it wasn’t simply the recording that made Olsen kill him, but that he was involved in the Colson brother’s insider trading scandal. With the truth out Matty made his own play: that he would keep it all a secret if Olsen left his wife for him, tonight. At first, Olsen seemed to agree, embracing his lover in a deep kiss. But this would be a ruse. With Matty’s guard down, and a train coming into the platform, Olsen pushed him onto the tracks and to his death.
Returning home, with Jane by his side Olsen announced his resignation as a Senate Whip. In turn, Navarre announced his nomination. Congress would for its part overwhelmingly approve. Matty’s death was ruled a suicide, likely caused by the loss of his uncle. Washington fled D.C., fearing for her life. Some time later, on the car to his inauguration as Vice President, Olsen reflected to Jane the whole affair, and his hopes for the future.
She replied: “No house of cards can stand forever.”
2013—2015: Pres. Andrew Navarre (MI)/Sen. Frank Olsen (AK) (Democratic)
2014 Senatorial elections: Democrats - 51 (-8), Republicans - 49 (+8)
2014 House elections: Republicans - 231 (+59), Democrats - 204 (-59)
It had been a year into Olsen’s term as Vice President, and he now comprehended what Navarre meant by keeping him close. As President of the Senate, Olsen has little power. The Democrats comfortable majority negating the necessity of tie breaking votes, while the new traditions expected him to be largely uninvolved in the legislative process. As Navarre’s proxy, Olsen chaffed under collar, resenting having to speak in favour of the moderate positions that Navarre pursued as President. As a Governing partner, clashed frequently with the man holding his lead, demanding a more progressive administration. All was not well for the erstwhile Senator, both in public or in private. The revelation of his affair with the late-Matty Baxter saw Jane become estranged from her husband. It wasn’t simply that he had slept behind her back; but she was smart enough to know that Olsen was responsible for Matty’s death. Although Olsen spoke against corruption and pivoted himself as someone who would clean the swamp of Washington, as an insider it was hard for people to take him seriously. And indeed his own scandals would hurt his reputation, such as when he was hot mic’d demanding Navarre remove his EPA Administrator Bart Scott. Jim Stamper, longtime crony, would lose his job as Chief of Staff over this incident, replaced by Susan Harding under the direction of Navarre.
Not everything was as it seemed. Appearing neutralised and weak, Olsen began to move in earnest against Navarre. There was only a heartbeat between him and the Oval Office, and no matter how weak he looked, power was only held by the throb of a vein. Although increasingly estranged, Jane was still loyal to Frank- she felt that she owned him that much. In a rare moment of pillow talk she passed on that the First Lady resented her husband for focusing on his career and found their marriage loveless, instead conducting an affair with Jacobi Hart, a House Representative from Michigan, who Navarre had spent some years given political support atop hush money in an effort to keep discreet.
As pillow talk became plotting, Harding became detective. A friend of Patricia Washington's, she began to investigate the disappearance of her friend, now living off-the-grid in the Appalachian Mountains. The connection between the Baxter’s was simple enough. The connection between Roger and Jim Stamper came as a suprise. Confronting Stamper, he would tell her to ‘follow the money’ around Baxter’s death, and then quickly informed Olsen of Harding’s investigation. Weary of his flank, Olsen ordered Stamper to blackmail Rep. Hart with knowledge of his affair with the First Lady, passing Stamper substantial written knowledge. Stamper in turn used this to exchange a one-time-payment of $10,000 for silence from Rep. Hart, who after a (recorded by the Secret Service) phone conversation with the First Lady- who bemoaned that Hart couldn’t simply kill the blackmailer, but would pay half the blackmail- paid up. After delivering the blackmail money to Corder, Olsen’s bodyguard, Stamper was murdered and dumped in the Chesapeake Bay."
A few weeks would pass, Navarre and Olsen busying themselves with the mid-term. But in October, Stamper’s body was discovered on the East Virginia coast. Police believed it to be a hired killing, and were quick to link the murder to Rep. Hart and the First Lady. Although they believed that Stamper had blackmailed Hart- after all, a recently unemployed insider of the White House court is not someone who would reliably be described as a paragon of virtue- Stamper’s whereabouts during the alleged period money was handed over was covered by Olsen and Corder, who claimed that Olsen had been entertaining Stamper and considering a new position for him in the Vice Presidents staff. And with the money unaccounted for, the apparent professionalism of the murder clear to the coroner, and a recording of the First Lady ‘joking’ that Hart should have killed their blackmailer before giving him half the blackmail money, the dots were as clear as day. Both Hart and the First Lady were arrested on conspiracy to murder. With murder and infidelity wrapped in the White House, the Democrats took a bloody hammering in Congress, losing the House and only barely holding the Senate.
With his wife arrested and questions of his personal reputation now being discussed daily, Navarre became isolated and embattled in the Oval Office. Questions of Navarre’s involvement in the death of Stamper became popular speculation. The Republicans promised impeachment hearings would begin against Navarre; the Democrats remained silent, waiting to see who would break the cordon sanitaire. At a speech at a trade show in Des Moines, Olsen did just that. Emerging to a stage, Olsen’s speech- a fluff text on the importance of economic growth- was met with booing and jeering by the hostile audience. Olsen himself appeared to become agitated and combative, until he finally shouted “Fuck Andy Navarre”. To the shock of the trade hall, Olsen launched into what became the speech of his career and a defining moment of contemporary American politics, cursing out Navarre and the apparent corruption that surrounded the Oval Office and his predecessor, and the culture of corruption in Washington that he claimed had enabled Navarre, before moving his attack towards a broader range of targets, such as agricultural monopolies, private healthcare providers, and big banks. The crowd was ecstatic; Olsen appeared to them like Jesus walking. In Washington, Navarre and the senior Democratic Leadership went ballistic. Betrayed, hurt, and realising that his misfortunate was Olsen’s, Navarre pleaded with Harding to help him bring down his turbulent deputy. She refused, believing now that Navarre was responsible for the deaths of the Baxter’s.
When the new House assembled, non-partisan articles of impeachment were drawn up against Navarre. Meeting with Navarre, Olsen made him an offer: that if Navarre went now and spared the nation a drawn-out impeachment procedure, then he would issue him a Presidential Pardon when the ‘time was right’. Navarre accepted. Frank Olsen became the 45th President of the United States of America.
2015—2015: Veep. Frank Olsen (AK)/vacant (Democratic)
Olsen would speak with Harding at the Rose Garden after his inauguration, planning to reward her loyalty by making her Chief of Staff. Discussing what had happened, Olsen admitted he had no intention of issuing Navarre a pardon if he was found guilty of any crime. When asked why he waited until the mid-terms to spring his plan against Navarre, Olsen would admit that much of it was down to serendipity, and that he was now free to become the longest serving President since FDR.
Harding simply remarked: “Nothing lasts forever.”