Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, Richard Holbrooke and John McCain are household names and powerful political insiders.

In Washington, however, there are scores of office holders who don't make headlines yet have enormous clout. In markets parlance, these are blue-chip futures. In this category, three of the most influential are:

Jack Reed: The Democratic senator from Rhode Island, now in his third term, wields influence in several important ways. As a senior member on the Banking and Armed Forces Committee, he has finance and national-security credentials, while commanding special attention from the president. Reed was under serious consideration to be Barack Obama's running mate last year before taking himself out of the running.

Short and soft-spoken, the 59-year-old Reed grew up in a working-class family, graduated from the US Military Academy, and served as an Army Ranger and in the 82nd Airborne Division. He has master's and law degrees from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

When asked which senators the administration most listens to on financial matters, a top Obama economic official lists Reed as one. (The others are freshman Mark Warner of Virginia and Charles Schumer of New York.) Reed is generally supportive of the Obama administration's financial regulatory proposals and wants to comprehensively regulate derivatives, while favoring an interagency council, rather than the Federal Reserve, to monitor big financial firms for systemic risk.

On military matters, he and Armed Forces Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan have more sway than any other members of Congress. Reed is one of a handful of lawmakers Obama consults regularly on Afghanistan, which he and Levin visited this August. He has expressed scepticism about a troop surge there, saying "the burden of proof" is on the commanders to justify it. Yet he's also adamantly against any deadlines or timetables for drawing down US forces.

He is often mentioned as a possible defense secretary when Robert Gates departs.

"I'm very fortunate to be a senator from Rhode Island, and that's where my talents are best used," he says. "I have no interest" in another office.

The late House Speaker Sam Rayburn described two types of lawmakers, show horses and work horses. Reed, colleagues say, personifies the latter. "He's very thoughtful, and knowledgeable, and other members listen to him," says Bill Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary.

Kevin McCarthy: There seems to be some special political juice in the water in Bakersfield, California, where three years ago McCarthy took the seat of the retiring Bill Thomas, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a legislative titan.

Politically, his 44-year-old successor is sharper. As the chief recruiter of 2010 Republican congressional candidates, he is the party's shrewdest strategist in years — a non-profane Republican Rahm Emanuel, though that may be an oxymoron. If his party scores big gains next year, McCarthy's standing will soar; a top leadership post seems likely in the near future.

The son of a firefighter, McCarthy started his own small businesses to finance his college education. An aide to Thomas, he was then elected to the California legislature in 2002 where as a freshman he was chosen as the Republican leader of the state assembly.

As attested by his ever-present BlackBerries, frequent- flier miles and driving escapades to scores of districts, McCarthy is grassroots-centered, unlike many other Washington insiders.

"If we sit in Washington and pick candidates we're usually wrong," he says. "If we go out into the districts we'll succeed."

A conventional conservative, he ignores ideology in looking for candidates. He believes Republicans are poised for major gains in the House next year, positioning the party for the critical redistricting after next year's Census.

As always, closely contested districts are targeted, but McCarthy is also "throwing some Hail Marys" in traditionally safe Democratic districts: "You gotta have enough people on the surfboard to ride the wave."

A political junkie —"I love it" — the Californian is on the House Financial Services Committee, where he has a decent relationship with the liberal chairman, Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts. If there's an opening, he would love to switch to Ways and Means since tax issues are his legislative passion. For now he sees himself as a long-time House member.

Michael Froman: For the past 15 years, the policy epicentres at the White House have been the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. The liaison, focusing on international economics, between these power centers is Froman, described by colleagues as brilliant and unassuming.

His background is eclectic — a Harvard Law School classmate and associate on the Harvard Law Review of Obama — he earlier received a master's and doctorate in international relations. After law school, he did a short stint in Albania. He was a White House fellow, where he attracted the attention of Robert Rubin. He followed Rubin to the Treasury, serving as his chief of staff, and later to New York-based Citigroup Inc., where he was managing director of an infrastructure and sustainable-development group.

He closely consults his contacts on Wall Street and has good relations with former top Bush administration officials. He also wins plaudits for a lack of elitism and arrogance that marks some in the Ivy League-centric Obama administration.

"Michael is very sophisticated but he manages to operate in a way that people are comfortable with," says his mentor, Rubin.

Froman, 47, is the administration's point person for all dealings with the old Group of Eight and the Group of 20, the world's largest economies. His substantive charges range from trade to climate change to energy security. He gets credit for elevating the prominence of the G-20 and Obama's relative success in dealing with his counterparts on international economic issues.

If Larry Summers moves on from his post as director of the National Economic Council, Froman, who reconnected with his old law school classmate when Obama ran for the Senate in 2004, would be a leading candidate to replace him.