Howard Stackhouse

Howard Stackhouse is a fictional character in the TV Series The West Wing.

Stackhouse is a senior Democratic Senator from Minnesota (five terms) known for his staunch liberal positions. He was 78-year old in early 2001.

He was a central figure of the episode The Stackhouse Filibuster, when he conducted a one-man filibustering of an appropriations bill to secure money for autism research. A master of parliamentary procedure, Stackhouse kept the floor for a long time by reading from a cookbook and from the books of Charles Dickens.

The reason for his determination to defeat the bill was made clear in the late part of episode, when President Josiah Bartlett learned that Stackhouse's own grandson is autistic. Despite the fact that the bill had been closed earlier, this fact convinced Bartlett to make a deal with Stackhouse and to look again at the issue. The Senator had not told anyone that his grandson is autistic as he did not want to use the boy's health for political ends.

During the 2002 presidential election Stackhouse ran as an independent candidate, more liberal than Bartlett. However, unlike Seth Gillette, he dropped out from race in October and strongly endorsed the President. Bartlett earlier stated that he could not understand Stackhouse's challenge, arguing that he was "the most liberal President under whom he (Stackhouse) had ever served".

In The Stackhouse Filibuster it was also revealed that the Senator's wife had died a few years earlier, and that his personal hero is Hubert Humphrey.

Stackhouse may have a Norwegian heritage, because in his office are exhibited a Norway flag and a Viking's boat.