For generations, powerful senators have had "hideaway" office in the bowels of the U.S. Capitol, far from the tourists and staff that populate their official Senate offices. Nowadays, all 100 senators have such hideaways, though they vary in quality. The green color of the walls in Andy's hideaway perfectly match the color of the walls in the hideaway of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, though Kennedy didn't have a foosball table in his hideaway, as Andy does.
Shelby is played by Haley Joel Osment, best known for his role in The Sixth Sense (1999), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. In Alpha House, he doesn't see any dead people, at least not yet.
Going back to the Vietnam War, U.S. officials on the ground have been known to provide overly-optimistic reports to visiting members of Congress.
Planes landing at Bagram and other air strips in Afghanistan routinely undertake "corkscrew" landings.
Angie Sullivan is played by Molly Bernard, a recent graduate of the Yale Drama School. Her real-life New York roommate, Willa Fitzgerald, who plays Lola Laffer, is also a Yale graduate. Each was cast in Alpha House without knowing the other had auditioned.