House of Cards

When the enemy attacked, you ran away.

That's treason.

Now it's time to splatter your brains everywhere.

Please! Please, don't kill me!

Shut up! Die like a man!

But I have a wife and family.

That's what happens to cowards.

Hey, shh, shh, shh! You have to keep it down.

- There's an important meeting going on. - Sorry.

I'll set you up in the copy room.

You won't be in the way there.

This is gonna be a close vote.

Most of your colleagues are not gonna wanna spend

this amount of money in just 25 districts.

Try persuasion first.

Talking points are in your packets.

And if you want more detailed information...

research, statistics... you can contact Gillian or myself.

And when it comes to doling out favors, talk to Doug.

If favors don't work, come to me directly. Peter.

I'll be campaigning in Pennsylvania.

All my events this week

will be in counties within the watershed,

so I'll be working the media angle.

But if you need me to get on the phone with anybody,

reach out to Christina.

She'll work it into my schedule.

I have to say, Frank,

$200 million is going to be a hard sell.

The natural gas lobby's already putting up a big fight.

We need to make this about jobs.

But the drilling industry can offer far more jobs than this bill can.

This bill doesn't threaten those jobs,

it just makes sure the drilling is done responsibly.

It adds more jobs on top of that.

I've already been approached by Sancorp with reelection funds.

I have too. They offered me a donation package

from eight different drilling companies.

- Remy Danton? - Yep.

How many of you been approached by Remy?

Look, I know it's not easy to turn down money.

But if the Republicans control redistricting in Pennsylvania,

we lose the house next election,

and all of you lose your committee chairmanships.

This is a feather that we need in Peter's hat.

A loss on this bill endangers his chance of winning,

and we are fighting to keep our majority here.

Any other concerns?

I want a first vote count by 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you all very much.

Sync and correction by lweka

It's brutal. 22 stops in three days.

- That's a lot of sleeping on the bus. - No sleeping.

That bus is the only place I can get work done.

You know, Francis did a big bus tour in '98,

and the bus lost its brakes going down a hill,

and we landed in a tobacco field.

He gets out of the car, knocks on the farmer's door,

writes a check for all the damaged crops,

and then borrows his pickup so he doesn't miss the next event.

And it was actually fun.

He was driving. I was shotgun.

We had the whole staff in the flatbed.

We actually got there ten minutes early.

- I think I should be here to help drum up votes.

Careful, sir. It's very hot.

Look, you and the vice president will get national coverage.

That's gonna help us with the count.

I reached out to him. He never got back to me.

I don't know if he even knows the talking points about the bill.

I don't think Jim wants to go.

He's doing it as a favor to the president and I,

so it doesn't matter if he doesn't know the talking points.

People wanna see him be folksy, you know?

So just humor him. Show him some degree of...

- aagh! Aagh! - Oh, my God.

- Are you okay? - It was an accident.

Okay, it's time for us to go. I'm so sorry.

It's all right. I just need to run it under some cold water.

I'm not going to lie.

I despise children.

There. I've said it.

You can't act like that in here.

- You have to be a big boy. - I know.

Peter, we really need to get going.

We've already missed one flight because the meeting went over.

I booked us another one at 9:25, but...

- we have to drop the kids off at school.

It's going to be really tight.

If we miss this plane, we have to cancel our first event.

Nancy, can you take them?

I've gotta get packets ready for the lunchtime sub-caucuses.

Peter, I'd do it, but we have a meeting

with Greenpeace in 20 minutes.

- I gotta get their rating on the bill. - Where's their school?

Connecticut and Q.

- Oh, I can take them. - You sure?

Yes. It's on the way to my office.

This watershed act proves that once again

the anti-capitalist agenda

is alive and well in the Democratic party.

Let me show you what's really going on.

Here are the democrats eating up all of their

soft science, "organically homegrown" propaganda

that the eco-fanatics are force-feeding them.

And over here, at the tail end of all those jackasses,

are middle-class Americans...

people who just want to work hard

and rely on jobs in the drilling industry.

And what about the hypocrisy, folks?

Does Peter Russo honestly have the gall

to lecture us on the purity of our rivers

when he has been polluting himself with chemicals for years?

He's not just been eating grass, he's been smoking it.

It's the only major bill he's sponsored in six years.

I know, but they already have national coverage.

What's the angle?

If it doesn't pass, I think he'll lose

support from the shipbuilders' association.

So they lose support. It's not that juicy.

They're a huge part of his get-out-the-vote effort in Philly.

It sounds like inside baseball.

Not if I get the vote count. Black and white numbers.

Nobody has that. But when I called the campaign,

they stonewalled me.

Same thing in the whip's office.

Do you know anyone over there?

In Underwood's office?

No, I don't.

Nobody on staff?

- Hmm-mm. - Oh.

I just figured because you gave me the Russo profile.

No, that didn't come from them.

But Underwood organized the campaign.

I'm sorry. I don't know anybody there.

Okay.

Hey, it's me. I just wanted to fill you in on something.

I should be back home at 10:00. Meet me there.

- Sarah made this one. - It's a frog.

And I made this one. Can you guess what it is?

- A lobster? - No. It's a scorpion.

They're for you. For the ones you gave us.

Aw, they're beautiful.

But maybe you should bring them to school, no?

For show-and-tell? Or give them to your friends.

No. The other kids will just make fun of us.

Why?

Everybody hates us at school.

They say dad's a crackhead and that we're crack babies.

I looked up "crack baby" on the computer.

I don't look like that.

Yeah, they say dad's gonna O.D. like Amy Winehouse.

Well, you tell them that your dad doesn't do

that kind of thing anymore, right?

Yeah, we do, but they don't believe us.

Did you try going to the teachers?

We can't do that. Everyone will just hate us even more.

Well, you can't worry about what other people think, right?

I wish dad wasn't running for Governor.

- You ever been to allentown before? - I have not.

What do you think?

Compared to New York, the parking is easier.

Finding a decent bagel, not so much.

We make up for it with the cream cheese.

- Shall we? - Ready when you are.

Your watershed bill.

You've ticked off the Republicans, oil, gas...

sometimes you gotta upset a few people to do the right thing.

Not just a few. There's a sizable coalition

that wants to see your bill fail,

including environmentalists from your own party.

- Don't think the bill does enough. - We wanted a passable bill.

That's why we aimed for middle ground...

do you actually care about the Delaware river?

I don't sponsor legislation I don't care about.

Until recently, you hadn't sponsored any legislation at all.

I spent my time in congress focusing on things

that were important to my constituents.

- The shipyard. - Kept it open as long as I could.

Okay. That's one thing. What are the others?

I'd love to provide you a list

of all the things I've done in congress, but we've got 15 minutes...

your opponent has linked your inactivity

to your fondness for single-malts.

I've been very open about my past,

and I've done everything I can to overcome it

in a responsible, permanent way.

And I preferred vodka to scotch.

You should get your facts straight.

Is your watershed act

just a ploy to jump into the spotlight

and pad your transcript while you apply for Governor school?

It's real money.

It's real jobs.

And when the Delaware river is less

polluted than it's been in 50 years...

it's holding up a real glass of its water and seeing how clear it is.

That's what my bus tour is about.

- The vice president is joining you later? - Correct.

Why has it taken him this long to endorse you?