Charlie Platt (Napoleon's World)

Charles Frederick "Charlie" Platt (born September 19, 1945) is an American Democratic politician and former US Representative from Maryland, serving from 1981 to 2001. He is best known for his time as Speaker of the US House of Representatives from 1991 to 2001. An almost outspoken liberal within his own center-left party, he was noted for his vehement opposition to the center-right governments of Robert Redford, whom many credit him with driving out of office in the 1992 elections, and Mitt Romney, whom he went head-to-head with until his defeat in the 2000 elections in his own district by one of the most heavily funded US Representative candidates of all time. Platt also famously sparred with President John Burwin, despite being of the same house, due to his assertion that Burwin was "sleeping with the enemy" due to compromises with Nationalist centrists on many matters in the early 1990's.

Platt is often regarded as one of the most unpopular Speakers of the past sixty years, and due to his unapologetically confrontational nature and increasing stubborness was considered a political liability within his own party by the end of his tenure, even within the more liberal camp that included notable Democrats such as John Hawke, Tom McNary, George Clayborn, and Bruce Springsteen. Platt currently works for The American Dream Initiative, a liberal lobbyist firm in Washington, D.C.