Michele Bachmann

The Tea Party star is leaving Congress after just four terms, but whether it's a career in political activism, a cable show, or another run for office, Bachmann probably isn't abandoning politics. The Minnesota conservative shot to national fame in 2008 after making a McCarthy-esque suggestion that the media investigate members of Congress with "anti-America" views.

Bachmann rose in conservative circles alongside the Tea Party, and she parlayed her fame into a presidential run in 2012 that peaked when she won the Ames Straw Poll in August 2011. Her campaign was short lived as it became embroiled in ethics investigations. Inside Congress, her voice was louder than her influence; Republican leaders paid her little attention, and the Tea Party Caucus she co-founded never became a force. Yet to her most ardent fans, Bachmann's congressional legacy may be that while her critics could say many things about her, they could never accuse her of "going Washington" or being co-opted by the establishment. Michele Bachmann's tenure in Congress wasn't long, but she remained an outsider to the end.

Tom Coburn

Forget Ted Cruz. Coburn, elected to the Senate in 2004, was the original conservative obstructionist, using the unique powers bestowed upon any individual senator to hold up spending bills to such an extent that the obstetrician from Oklahoma earned the nickname, "Dr. No." Yet in recent years, Coburn has been overshadowed by even more aggressive Republicans like Cruz and the more libertarian Rand Paul. After upholding his pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House, Coburn planned on keeping a similar promise to stay for just two terms in the Senate. But a recurrence of cancer led him to end his tenure two years early. He is making the most of his final weeks in office, returning to the theme of his early years by blocking Democratic efforts to pass legislation on veterans suicide, energy efficiency, and terrorism risk insurance on fiscal conservative grounds.

Ralph Hall

While Dingell has served the longest, Hall is, at 91, the oldest member of Congress. First elected as a conservative Texas Democrat in 1980, he will leave Congress in January with the distinction of having served at least a decade in both parties after switching to the GOP in 2004. Hall has been a reliable conservative vote in the years since, but his congressional career will end as a result of his defeat in a GOP primary run-off earlier this year.

Yet his and Dingell's departure will mark an even more significant end of an era: They are the last remaining World War II veterans in a Congress that once featured dozens. And unfortunately, like his longtime colleague, Dingell, Hall is concluding his career in precarious health after he was hospitalized following a car crash in October.