Work together even when they dont necessarily agree on things. I was looking up a speech that president carter gave in naming building in texas after congressman brooks and one of the things the president sent at the time was hes a new president who thought ill just have one congressman who disagrees with me, im the president of the united states, its no big deal. Then he found out that one congressman was jack brooks and it was a big deal. It talks about how president and Congress Work together and i think at this time, it is very important that we hear that message about how they work together. We are pleased tonight to have his son here with us. Jeb has worked in the financial industry and companies for more than three decades. He started his career at citibank in taiwan, Vice President of city groups National Securities and hes currently the managing partner and is the chairman of the Jack Brooks Foundation which provided the wonderful reception so please join me in welcoming and thanking jeff brooks. [applause] thank you so much for that kind introduction. We are all rightful to you and the Carter Library and museum for your generosity and hosting us this evening. With events like this, im grateful my fathers example can continue to inspire people for years to come. Jack brooks devoted his life to this country. By serving his constituents as their representative, serving his constrictions long enough to serve alongside ten u. S. President s. The best one, president jimmy carter. Its truly an honor to have all of you here to share with you this new biography. Jack brooks and the making of an american century. On my own, i could never have accomplished as much as these two authors. The books family posed these two men as special debt of gratitude. The only two people who know more about my debt than i do, jim and brandon. [applause] tonight is special and another way, we are very fortunate to have with us mr. Hendrick, president s chief white house speechwriter, editor of the new republic, staff writer for the new yorker and a needed voice of reason even today. He into the authors will have key observations about chairman brooks his career and we would like to thank you for being here this evening. [applause] as many of you know, the foundation is founded in my fathers name in here to tell you more about it, let me introduce my good friend, a man for all seasons and president of new foundation, mr. John. [applause] im thrilled to be here and i have two announcements, i have a pretty easy job but this wouldnt happen if it wasnt for his tenacity, his leadership and i want to thank him for that and recognize him and thank you for your friendship. The first item, the foundation is up and running. We are inspired by and will work to continue the legacy of hard work in a no nonsense, nonpartisan approach to public policy. Continued of the foundation to help as Many Americans as possible reconnect with our Representative Government and im very proud to lead this effort. First initiative was to be promote a legacy project. Its a custodian from the congressional papers. Im happy to announce they have begun a one year effort to digitize and make available and searchable online key legislation champion by chairman brooks. We have a lot of activity in the foundation, we are very excited. We invite all of you to stay in touch, we would love to hear from you. Let me begin the conversation about my friend, jack, the meanest man in congress. Brandon, lets get started. Thank you. [applause] thank you very much. Its great to be here in the Carter Library and museum. Perhaps we shall have a few words of welcome indirectly, president jimmy carter. When carter dedicated the jack brooks building, he had nice things to say about jack brooks. He said i would like to pay particular tribute to chairman jack brooks, and ally, he hates to lose, i am deeply grateful to jack. A little bit later, authors write one time a private company in georgia, he spoke in clean language, a journalist for the growth and is happy to be an old friend of mine. Hes been the best anyone can have on capitol hill. Hes a tough son of a pitch. I mean insider. Jack brooks, i suspect most cspan viewers might recognize, but the American Public might wonder who he was. On capitol hill, and the district of columbia, jack was the eldest. Those of you who feel like you have heard of him, many remember the iconic photograph was taken november 22, 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy and johnson among others back to washington, if you look at the picture, you see over jackies Left Shoulder is jack brooks. How did this guy go from being Newspaper Delivery boy to the airplane . What propelled him to those heights . I think he was a man of his generation. He dubbed it the greatest generation. He went from a hard life with his father dying when he was 12 and he worked his way from paperboy to junior reporter, he learned one of the early lessons he had was by going and doing a social column, all the names of everybody who was there said well, why did you do that . He said i knew the editor wouldnt take albany names. So thats what he left for him. He went on to go to the university of texas, this is the late 30s, early 40s. Pearl harbor happened, he wanted to sign up for the marines. A marine recruiter came to campus and the editor of the Campus Student newspaper, the recruiter said he was too scrawny. He wouldnt make the marines, he should go to the army. He said no, i want to go to the marines so he said you want a story in my paper. He said yes about the recruiting. He said i dont know if we could get it in for the next few months. But maybe if i have the application i wouldnt be a problem. Hes was figure out out ways to negotiate. Went to the South Pacific for two and a half years. He began to learn to negotiate other things like they needed boots, they went through the jungle and they werent requisitioned. He was able to find a couple of cases of whiskey and suddenly the boot that were supposed to be 50 boot was ended up being 2150 boot. It started to prepare him for congress. By the time in air force one with Jackie Kennedy and onto johnson, he had been in congress for ten years. He was seasoned. He got legislation. Most politicians with that ambition that brooks had, jack brooks doesnt seem to happen my guy more was he governor soandso, the title he had was mr. Chairman. Why . He just wanted to be the best in history. That the district he grew up in, those of the people he knew. For him, that was it. He enters congress into 19th 53. He had opportunities. When johnson was president. He said im where i should be. He eventually was mr. Chairman for the Operations Committee from 74 until 88 and house judiciary. That was the top of the mountain for him. To be the chairman of the preeminent constitutional principle. One of the things that struck me reading the book was just how close he was to johnson. Not just as a political or somebody who could help on capitol hill but deeply personal intimate relationship, to the point where i got the impression that maybe sometimes he didnt want to go to the johnsons every night and watch tv and drink and have fun. Tell us a little about the nature of that relationship being so unique. I think all the democratic president s found in brooks, they needed somebody who was there in the house. With johnson, that was certainly the case. He knew jack brooks was the person he needed behind the scenes to get things done. Brooks still didnt vote for that legislation. He did most of it but not all. Johnson didnt fault him for that because youre not going to push brooks. When he came back to washington, brooks went with johnson to the president s home and stayed there much of the next week or two, spending time with them, handling details but i think as a personal work and saying youre the best man for this now and giving him encouragement. Listening to the tapes at the Johnson Library in austin, its amazing to listen to the two of them have this back and forth that said these are really master politicians who know what theyre talking about, who know the congressman what they need, what they want to accomplish and how to trade and how to get there. They took the names right off the top of the tongue. Dozens of congressman know exactly what their districts were like and what the future was. A level of trust on back. No one knew this was a locked. There were shooters out there, heightened anxiety and trauma going through. He finally got to the hospital and saw secret service. He was president as soon as kennedy passed away. He was a future in commander in chief. Very compassionate divisional. Jackie kennedy wanted you send them back. He couldnt go himself so he sent brooks to escort her back there. Went to the airport with lady bird and recalled that car ride with the secret service, what was the way you said it . Fastest he ever took off. [laughter] you get the idea. Johnson got into the other car and the secret service was basically on top of him. The went in the cars and took off. During the johnson administration, he had an interesting balance between essentially liberal ideas and not exactly conservative but rhetoric approach. It was about how brooks helped give the great society. One of the things, he was a toxic Texas Democrat. So when he was very conservati conservative, he came from a district, he was very strong on civil rights, very strong on unions, the Different Oil refineries there on the border between texas and louisiana, these are his constituents. So he was stood out from a lot of other southern democrats for that. It was so creative. Liberal hoax, the benefits of the observation and you had the work and new generation of legislative coming back, they still had this principle but they were, course the phrase . Battle . [laughter] they were a new type of policy maker. Having johnson in the white house at that time, it is a beneficial relationship. They had a job to do and they were valuable as well. One gets the impression reading this that johnson was kind of lonely and hes not just welcomed the brooks is to the white house but they called him up and had other plans. They go to the white house and spent hundreds of hours together not just in politics but enjoying life. It was just like couples that are getting together all the time. They enjoyed each Others Company and there was no question of fact. I think for president called the loneliest job so you need someone or people to try to get anything for personal gain. Getting something while mark but he was never after anything for himself. I think that something president need. They talked to the press. They had this board of educati education, leadership from brooklyn, chambers after 5 00 and he would have scotch together and discuss politics. There was bourbon and scotch. [laughter] so if you learn about, it was just an education like that. Was raven still speaker . Yes. We belonged to texas, the big texas allegation but it was those three, johnson and brooks, that obscured the conversation and they understood what levers to pull. The direction they steered in was different than what we now think of as what texas wants. Its different today. Why was he so friendly to civil rights . It was much more than the rest of texas. They come for generations so i think he grew up there. His district had traditional whites and they had a town in his district where the ku klux klan lived and that was in the district as well. So you have this mix of people and political outlooks but through that, he also believed in civil rights. He believed there was a time in response to the board of education where they, i think it was maybe southern democrat congressman and 19 senators signed this southern manifesto which didnt say they wanted to continue segregation but that was the purpose. He refused to sign it. Including his friend that also refused. More than 100. About 80 tooth that signed it. Thus the original confederate states. Did he ever think about running for a statewide office . It feels like he didnt give that a thought. He said he never intended to and it just didnt occur to him so those from california, he would talk to them but he didnt care about the press. Getting anything special from him that would validate his national stature. He cared about his district and he cared about the power in washington. He had an endorsement in 1966 and he was like i dont know. My policy about shipping got away. [laughter] how many president s did you say . They made the mistake that he was under the president. [laughter] i got the feeling from his military experience where he made a rulebook but he played by the real rulebook. It was human nature and that was kind of the way he became this Effective Legislature as he did. Bend rules and learned as an officer, they were going back to guam at one time and he was supposed to sleep with his troops off the coast but he realized quickly he couldnt. They were in the company of a red cross nurse. He found out if he woke up at a certain time, he could potentially offer the cargo and transport. He would crawl up there, hopped over and get back in time for the morning. They cured the mall. [laughter] he didnt consider a longterm military career . No, he was already behind. He had the research from his book, we found his family and friends and he had been sent back to his sister and told her to file them all the way. Theres a bit of background, seven years. We are talking about wage, this was 45. He would only make captain by a certain age. We fully expected to participate with japan. Very relieved because in the preparation for it, he thought, they talk about the casualty estimates for american troops was 60 . They were all very anxious when truman dropped the bomb on that. They were relieved. They were relieved. And student body class president s and secret society clubs and he knew he wanted to come back to get his license and run for congress. And we are still in the sixties but as time went on through the machinations of congress he thought he could use his position and he did through the government Operations Committee and through the judiciary and he was perfectly positioned thats the next biggest thing that came up to the impeachment hearings. Did he run first for the legislature quex. To terms. His goal was to get lamarr college which was in baltimore to be a statefunded university. He tried and trialed tried and failed and then he tried some more and told people to what affect because all the students from this area had to go way to go to college to get a full degree and he really cared about that and his constituents. He did it and the votes came he missed by a margin of one or two then he decided he would take the legislators on a trip down the river and have a party and when they went down the river it was lamarr college when they came back up it was lamarr university. [laughter] but a lot of people have never heard of him because he did things that were important but you dont get lots of publicity like lightbulb sparkle at that point im not sure exactly which year fast forward to while he was back in congress why do light bulbs burn out so much . Theres no reason we know they can last much longer so he pushed and got legislation to change the way they made lightbulb so they stay on longer and dont cost as much. He was yelling at an aid because they were switching lightbulbs again. He said thats it. But the technology hasnt changed since the first lightbulb. He also cared about other issues that were important to people for instance, computers the government or ibm had a monopoly and the government was renting them. Why are we buying them if we have to keep paying the same rent over and over he had a change so now theres more Free Enterprise with the computers. And theres a lot of others. And in 1965 computing specialists in the gsa had compiled this is what the government needs to do these systems dont talk to each other we have downtime in the v. A. A surplus of work to do in Health Education and Welfare Department he said we will have a bill and of these Companies Want to sell or lease has to be interoperable right your code on somebody elses machine and vice versa. That set the stage for the modern it industry with a 75 percent market share. So this is what we will sell you this is how you will use it. Also there is a lot of relevance today and that is something as a congressman he served on the panel impeaching a federal judge then with the rules of impeachment you can take over the story. This is a federal judge a Supreme Court justice who was put on a select panel to decide if there was reasonable evidence of investigation should be brought into this case and then they said there is not enough evidence and then hes the only person on the judiciary with experience. And people think the reason why those impeachment hearings were kicked in because tip oneill had so much faith that he wanted him to take the reins. He was the next Senior Member of it was the driving force behind the judiciary. And he got together with his staff there was a couple dozen possible impeachment articles and they said no get it down to three or five strong ones and thats what they did. But they got this list together and gave it to sarbanesoxley was the new senator from maryland and he read the impeachment articles that he had not read before if it had not been for the smoking gun tape it wouldve went to the impeachment articles instead nixon resigned the next week he reduce the articles. 35 congressman submitted a resolution for impeachment among those 17 were discussed and thrown out and then the rest were put into the judiciary and you are not to investigate any more to take the evidence from the senate from the watergate hearings and you should determine if those were Impeachable Offenses. So the chairman just sat he and the special prosecutors they didnt want to make a mistake so they didnt want to seem partisan or overzealous and wanted to have everything out in the open so forget about the optics if thats a process after six months of virtually no action and said okay so took about 17 critical charges to his Staff Members and said lets see what we can come up with then they went to the full committee but only needed one. And to kickstart this to say we need to get something done weve been going on for months and months. He didnt want another drawnout legalistic play so he tried to make sure the articles of impeachment dealt with those issues not with what does this mean in the law but to have a strict constitutional impeachment. The senator for American History you can see the drafts and the red line and to be in concert with. He didnt want any loaded words and just to withheld evidence. It sounds like he was a newspaper editor. [laughter] that helped so its by no surprise that nixon called him the executioner so did he do that in public . He did that in private. For specific mentions of this. Because he was the first behind the impeachment hearings. So we sent him a subpoena so what can we do . We will write a letter again. It may be the real reason is the articles were released calling all of the Congressional Committee members together that we will do it and brooks probably took the cigar out of his mouth and said shoot them or hang them. [laughter] prior to this after agnew resigned and ford was chosen to be the new Vice President. Brooks had enough foresight to say that ask questions he had a list of 52 questions to put to ford because if he did become the Vice President which was pretty obvious he would and nixon left and ford would become president so he wanted him on the record to say the Impeachable Offense or if the president did this did he deserve to stay in office. Falsified tax records there were 52 separate items. He was thinking ahead with the minority leader so how do you feel about this . They wrote a note to say thank you you are tough but fair or great but fair. Thats my editor. [laughter] because im so curious i keep going back to that personal relationship of lbj almost like they were best friends those evenings there were lots and lots. I dont think johnson watched gunsmoke. [laughter] politics was their socialization. And thats what they enjoy talking about they would go through and see which things they would suggest. And thinking each other for their support and johnson famously said that he was afrai afraid. Did they ever clash or disagree . They did. Is the opinion of the federal judge in the fifties. Somebody appointed and then the tif was over. How did they get along with ford as president quex. He liked ford because he could have his way. [laughter] and ford was a decent man and represented a lot of what he disliked personally about nixon and worked with ford for a long time but he also fought him tooth and nail over runaway inflation and all these defense projects running amok and he wanted to do interesting things and have support but maybe were not the best idea and then they said no were not going to do this might be popular but its wrong. So jimmy carter wrote in his memoir how difficult it was dealing with brooks he wanted reorganization so that was the job of congress but did brooks support any candidate before the nomination . Not that im aware. But he campaigned for carter . Mckee was a partisan democrat no doubt about it. Brooks did talk to the media quite a bit about that on the National News in over to the rattlesnakes of texas. [laughter] so he got the name snake killer mister chairman. [laughter] [applause] i think thats a great place to break and get some questions from the audience. Anyone with a question . We will start right up front. Do you have any personal stories or anecdotes that you thought we should know about that didnt make it into the conversation already . I like he was such a hard worker demanded discipline and hard work from his staff he was a tough boss. People loved him for it there was a story about a young staffer who was in his office and was tickled that the congressman had invited him over to the house on a saturday for lunch the chairman says good you are here i have brush for you to clear. [laughter] the Chairman Committee gods and they bowed to their wishes over legislation so if they want something they are the experts in that field. There is a long story it is a different time now they dont live in the same neighborhoods and then spend two or three days in dc. And then kids ago to the same school they would be in those programs together. God knows it was partisan and one of the former governors and Strom Thurmond was about two or three doors down. Besides being a segregationist and marrying 47 years his junior. So one day and said very proudly we are having a baby. [laughter] and brooks looked at him and said who do you suspect . [laughter] [applause] just to go back and talk about this relationship and the way that we have described it we have very different ambitions and of course johnsons to russell and all these others he was trying to gain influence and move to a higher office. But it seems to me it seems in so far as he wanted to be first among his peers in the house. Those were very roughandtumble times with sit on with such a coalition of different factions. Did you identify masters with the interest he had to serve . And if they could talk about the eventual the final election . The 94 crime bill that president clinton wanted to shepherd in different forms. He knew and believed it was important to separate them the assault weapons ban was part of it. With the omnibus bill that was ten different massive bills combined. Which now plays out and that was a disastrous effect. This was 94. And clintons memoir talks about this. Because they said this will kill us at the polls. So clinton said they wanted all together. And with 50 democratic congressmen lost their seats including tom foley the only speaker of the house the current speaker to lose his seat. And the blowback from that and 94. And the Texas Democrat isnt soft on anything but believes in the Second Amendment and the nra. Also host of a congressional skeet shoot in fairfax virginia. That here was the guy. And with that particular lobby. Not all republicans but a good number and even if they were opposed but this one thing with the meeting between the house leadership in the Senate Leaders in the Senate People like bob dole with the legislation was approved so they could move on. But as you were leaving they said what about brooks they said no his word is good. [laughter] but then he got back to his office and called i dont know what he said exactly that probably like dammit dont make me look bad in front of my leadership dont complement me. Tip oneill was famous about getting along with republicans what examples do you have with that quex. And those as a result of brooks input and to discover those matters again and again is also very good referring to him as the chairman if we had more time to write a few more chapters there is a guy from new york who is the Ranking Member for years and years. And the number of lifechanging bills to push through congress is just amazing and the people production act that reduced federal bureaucracy and the Consumer Protection act but eventually that passed they were as prolific as any republican or democrat in congress during that time. Asking one question of my own there is a hard work of congress one workhorse or show horse we dont know very much about it because he was a workhorse and doing the actual job of a representative democrat or republican is there were bills that were there other aspects where as a legislator could help the country . Mckee saw the federal company as an agent for a good he saw the vast reach the government had as the industry to act well to produce services. He didnt believe the government was the enemy he thought the government was helping people maybe not always perfectly that things could be perfected it wasnt the same feeling you have to be against the government he was totally for the government. I will follow up with one final question if he were to step into the Democratic Caucus right now, what advice would he give the Democratic Caucus quex. Part from the bolstering. [laughter] nancy pelosi was in office six or eight years while he was still there and did not serve on his committees that looked up to him as a mentor so some of those acts or she is not responding to the 24 hour news cycle as one of the firebrands right away everything is done correctly that is one indication to what he might suggest that there was a quote from the early seventies and said there are two things that make a politician and how much elbow grease can they inject. Can i say one more thing . I just want to congratulate on the brilliance of this title its a wonderful title it has so many multiple meeting meanings. Yes the monster or whoever he is questioning her government waste but also suggest the methods in the ways of doing things that he could do so much good thats now sneered at as government waste at the lowest possible price at the highest possible quality and we need more of that. He took the title of the meanest man in congress and took that as a point of pride that he was tough. Corporate ceos and other Department Heads would be before this committee they would mutter and so be and he would say what they really mean is sweet old brooks. [laughter] [applause] i told you it would be a fascinating evening and it has been. Its not over yet we have copies of the meanest man in congress. Signing copies of them out front also some dessert and coffee as well please join me to thank them one more time. [applause] thank you all very much i didnt even have to say anything you are a welltrained bunch. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and education center