UPDATED 15:48 PM EST, December 6, 2012
They don't have a seat at the talks to defuse a year-end fiscal bomb, yet wield considerable influence.
They are wise-cracking debt-reduction duo Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles; anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Bernanke, one of the first to use the term "fiscal cliff," warns repeatedly of the dire consequences of going over the precipice of across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases in January absent congressional action.
