President said at the time was he had as a new president thought if i just have one congressman disagrees with me , im the president of the united states. Thats no big deal. Then he found out that one congressman was jack brooks and that was a big deal. But 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 and were especially pleased to not to have harassment jack brooks son jeff here with us. Jeffhas worked in the financial industry. And all all size companies for more than three decades. He started his career at citibank in taiwan, rose to Vice President of citigroups International Securities in london. Currently the managing partner of pinewood trading fund and is the chairman of the Jack Brooks Foundation which provided the wonderful reception for us tonight so please join me in welcoming and thanking jeff brooks. [applause] thank you so much tony for that kind introduction. We are all grateful to you, and the Carter Library and museum or your generosity in hosting us this evening. With events like this, im grateful that my fathers example can continue to inspire people for years to come. Jack brooks devoted his life to this country. First as a marine, then by serving his constituents as their representative. Serving his constituents long enough to serve alongside and us president. But the best one of course, president jimmy carter. So its truly an honor to have all of you all here to sharewith you this new biography. The meanest man in congress, jack brooks and the making of an american century. On my own, i could never have accomplished as much as these two intrepid authors. The Brooks Family and rightfully all of america, owes these two men a special debt of gratitude. Ladies and gentlemen, the only two people who know more about my dad that i do, jim and brendan signaling. Tonight is special in another way. We are fortunate to have witnessed mister hendrick herzberg. He was president and white house chief speechwriter, editor of thenew republic, staff writer for the new yorker and a needed voice of reason even rstoday. He and the authors are going to have key observations about german brooks career and we like to thank you for being here this evening. [applause] as was just mentioned as many of you know the foundation has also been found in my fathers name and here is on you more about it let me introduce my good friend, truly a man for all seasons and the president of the new chad Brooks Foundation , mister john this sunday. [applause] good evening area im thrilled to be here and i have two announcements ,tonight i have an easy job but neither of these would have happened if it wasnt for jebs tenacity, his passion, his leadership and i want to thank him for that and most of all thank you for your friendship. Im thrilled to announcethe. First item and that is the Jack Brooks Foundation is up and running. Were inspired by and will be working to continue the legacy of hard work and a a nononsense, nonpartisan approach to public policy. The intention of the foundation is to help as Many Americans as possible reconnect with our Representative Government and im very, very proud to be leading this effort. Ourfirst initiative will be to promote a legacy project. The center for American History at the university of texas at austin is a custodian for the jack brooks in the congressional papers area i am happy to announce that they have begun a oneyear effort to digitize and make available and searchable online key legislation champions by german brooks. We have a lot of activity at the foundation. Wereexcited and invite all of you to stay in touch. We loveto hear from you. So without further delay let me begin the conversation about my friend jack brooks, the meanest man in congress. Brendan, tim, please, lets get started. [applause] thank you jeb, thank you very much. Its great to be here in a private library andmuseum. And perhaps we should have a few words of welcome and directly from our president jimmy carter. El when carter dedicated i think its a jack brooks federal building, he had some nice things to say about jack brooks. He said i would like to pay particular tribute to the leadership role of chairman jack brooks. Hes a formidable ally to having a tough fight. He hates to lose and rarely does and had it not been for him we probably would not have prevailed. Im deeply grateful to jack and im a little bit later our authors write, he said a lot more informally, they write one time in private company, back in plains georgia, carter spoke in plainer language to dear companions including travis wilkie, the wellknown journalist for the boston globe. This is what happens with your old friend of mine. Carter recalled that relationship brooks had been the best ally anyone could have on capitol hill. Hes a sonofabitch. And a mean insider. Now, jack brooks is a name i suspect most cspan viewers might recognize but the American Public might wonder just who jack brooks was. Around capitol hill, on capitol hill and in the District Of Columbia jack brooks was as famous as elvis. But those of you who feel a little bit like you might have heard of him, may remember that the iconic photograph that was taken november 22, 1963 on the plane that flew Jacqueline Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson among others back to washington. And if you look at the picture you see over jackies left shoulder, theres jack brooks. So i want to ask each of you two guys, how did this guy go from i dont know, being a Newspaper Delivery boy to that airplane, what propelled him to those. I think it was really a man of his generation and now tom brokaw geis probably the greatest generation. He went from a very hardscrabble life where his father died when he was 12 and he worked his way from paperboy to junior reporter for the beaumont enterprise. He learned, one of the early lessons he had was that by going and doing eight social column, he included all the names of everybody who was there. And he said why did you do that . He said i knew the reditor would take out any names and i got paid by thecolumn inch. And so that was an early lesson for him. And then, he went on to go to the university of texas, this is in the late 30s, early 40s. Pearl harbor happened. You wanted to sign up forthe marines. A marine recruiter came to campus and at this time jack was the editor of the Campus Student newspaper, so the marine, i believe it was , he went and the recruiter said that he was too scrawny. He wouldnt make a marine,you should go to the army. And he said no, i want to go to the marines so he said you know, you want a story in my paper. And he said yes. About the arecruiting area and i dont know if we can get in for the next few months. Well, but maybe if i have that application i wouldntbe a problem. So he already was figuring out ways to negotiate. Then he did go to the marines , went to the South Pacific for 2 and a half years. Island hopping and also there he began to learn to negotiate other things like his men needed dry boots because of the dampness of the jungle and the, they were requisition. He was able to find a couple of cases of whiskey and suddenly, the boots that were supposed to be 50 boots was a two in front of it,they became 250 pairs of boots. And so that kind of even though it may be wheeling and dealing, it started to prepare him for congress. And i the time in air force one with Jackie Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, he had already been in congress for 10 years so he was season area he had learned at the foot of sam rayburn who was a master of process and getting legislation. Most politicians with a kind of ambition jack brooks had, would learn to be called mister president. But jack brooks doesnt seem to have been that guy. Nor was he yearning to be senator or governor so and so. The title he reveled in was mister chairman. Why . Why is that . He just wanted to be the best representative for that district, that the district he grew up in rid of those are people he knew and he wanted torepresent them as well as he could. And for him, thatrwas it. He had kind of made it at a young age, he was 29 when he first entered congress in 1953 and he had other opportunities. He was me potentially, this was the rumor at the time that he was going to be tapped for ag in 1965 was his dear friend johnson was president and he had no interest. He said no, im where i should be. As you said, he wanted to be called mister chairman and he eventually was mister chairman for the House Government Operations Committee from 74 to 88 and then of course the judiciary from 88 to 94. And i think that was the top of the mountain for him. It was to be the chairman of the preeminent arbiter of constitutional principle. One of the things that struck me reading the book was just how close he was to Lyndon Johnson. Not just as a political alignment, not just as somebody who could help him out on capitol hill but its deeply personal, intimate relationships. To the point where i got the impression maybe sometimes he didnt really want to go over reto the johnsons every night and watch tv and drink and have fun. Tell us a little about the nature of that relationship which was so unique . President s found in jack c brooks an ally. And somebody that they knew. Somebody who was there in the house with johnson that was certainly the case. Johnson knew the institution of congress as well as any president ever has and he knew that jack brooks was the person he needed behind the scenes to get things donethat he needed to get done. And brooks dont didnt vote for all the great sis legislation. He voted for most of them but not all. And johnson didnt fault him for that because he knew youre not going to push over jack brooks when hes standing on his own principles. When they got off of air force one and came back to washington, brooks went with johnson to his Vice President s home and stay there much of the next week or two. Spending time with them, not only handling details, but i think as a aikind of personal bulwark. Saying that youre the best man for this now. And giving him encouragement. Listening to the tapes at the Johnson Library in austin, it is amazing to listen to the two of them have this backandforth repartee that said these are really master politicians who know what theyre talking about, who know under congressmen what they need. What they want to accomplish. And how to trade area and how to get their votes. Though, they would take off the names right off the top of their tongue for dozens and dozens of congressmen and know exactly what the districts were like and what the future was. And thats a certain level of trust. On november 22 when theyre all huddled in a parkland hospital, no one knew if this was a communist plot, if there wereother shooters out there. There was this not just anxiety but trauma that everyone was going through and then jack brooks finally got to the hospital and saw lyndon there surrounded by secret service in a corner with lady bird and his mobility was limited because this was, he was present as soon as kennedy had passed away but this was a bit more the future of commanderinchief so they were not going to let him go anywhere but johnson was also , people didnt know about him because he was very caring and very compassionate individual and he wanted Jackie Kennedy to have somebody you wanted to send lady bird to the operating room. Where kennedy was lying and he couldnt go himself so he sent jack brooks to escort her back there. He was in the room with kennedys body and with the two of them and they did it with colony upstairs. And after after johnson they asked brooks to go with reagan to the airport and brooks recalled car ride with the secret service from parkland to Love Field Area that it was the way he said it, he said it was the fastest ive ever gone and it took off like a striped. [bleep] zebra. You get the idea. And johnson got into the other car and Rufus Youngblood was the big burly secret service men who got in basically on top of him and albert thomas, another congressmen or someone else, they just stuck those cars and took offto love field. He had come into his own during the Johnson Administration and he had an interesting balance of kind of rhetorical balance between essentially liberal goals, liberal ideas and not exactly conservative, but hardheaded rhetoric and a hardheaded approach. Tell us a little bit about how brooks helped give us the great society. Remember, he was a Texas Democrat and thats different. When he was very fiscally conservative, he came from a district. He was very strong on civil rights. He was very strong onunions. These were the Different Oil refineries that were right there on the border between texas and louisiana. These are his constituents so he was kind of, stood out from a lot of other southern democrats or Texas Democrats for that. Im sorry, whats the question again . Thats this combination which was turned into something socreative. Of liberal goals, liberal hopes s, there was no other time. I think kind of the excitement and politics of some of the new deal legislation had taken its course and you have the war and this new generation of legislators coming back. They were battle hardened and would still have these kind of liberal principles but they were whats the phrase . Harden battle. They were a new type of policymaker. They were betty betty, worth a . One gets the impression reading this that maybe johnson was kind of lonely because he so, not just welcomes the boxes to the white house, but he was liable to call them up and they had other plans and they would go right to the white house and they must have spent hundreds of hours together, not just talking politics, but enjoying life. They watched gunsmoke on tv. [laughter] i mean, it was like two couples ehat are getting together all the time. So, yeah. They enjoyed each Others Company and there was no question of that and brooks, for a president that i was like the loneliest job and is so you need someone or people, at least as someone who isnt trying to get anything for personal gain. He might not have shied away from getting something from beaumont, but he was never anything after anything for himself and i think that is something that president s need. One thing he learned from rayburn is that you dont talk to the press, back in the day you did not, i mean, they had this board of education as well kind of insider leadership from both the republicans and 0mocrats who would be in the speakers chambers after 5 00 p. M. And they would drink scotch and discuss politics. Surely, bourbon. Bourbon and then they switched to scotch. All three of them . [laughter] so, if you learn that from rayburn, so it was interesting education that he thought. Rayburn, was he still speaker . Yeah till 1960. So, it was a real we belonged to texas, did we . Big texas allegation, but it was those three rayburn, johnson and nsbrooks that kind of steers steered the conversation and they understood what levers to pull. T and of the direction they steered it in was different from what we now think of as what texas wants. Its a different todaynt. Why was he so friendly to civil rights . Do you know what the racial composition of his district was . Much more mixed of them the rest of texas. So much in just this Little Corner and you had, you know, kind of Migrant Workers from generations to thator corner, si think he grew up in a very different kind of community. His district had very kind of traditional whites and they had a it was a town in his district and where the grand dragon for the ku klux klan lived was in his district as well and if so you had this real mix of people in the political outlooks and not only did he have to steer, but through that he also really believed in the civil rights. He believed there was a time when after in response to the brown versus board of education, where i think it was 84 southern democrats, congressman and 18 senators find the southern manifesto, which it didnt do say they continue segregation, but that was the purpose of it and he refused it to sign. There were a few others, i think, maybe a dozen including his friend to jim wright that also refused. Out of more than a hundred i imagine. 82 signed it and about a dozen that did not and then 19 senators. 82 out of 430 . Well, southerners, defined as the 11 original confederate states. Did he ever have did he ever think about running for a statewide office or National Office . In the book it feels like he really didnt give that a thought. He said he was never tempted and it just didnt occur to him and so consequently he didnt care if some reporters from california called up he would talk to them, but he didnt care about the press getting anything special from him that would elevate his national stature. He cared about his district in the beaumont and brown and cared about the power of the chairmanship in washington. He got been in transmit from the New York Times in 1966. They asked him for comment afterwards and he was like, i dont know, i guess they like my policy about shipping and coastal waterway. Now, when how many president s did you say he worked under . Ten . People learned quickly not to make the mistake he worked under 10 president s. He worked with 10 president s. [laughter] i get the feeling from his military experience where he knew the rule book, but he played by the real available coming the rulebook of human nature and that it was kind of the wayf he became as effectivea legislator as he did. He learned he could bend the rules like adding the number two in front of the 50 and also learned as an officer they were staging to go back to guam at one point and he was supposed to sleep with his troops off on the ship off the coast i dont know if they were still in ecuador or whatever, but he learned quickly he could sleep onshore and Officers Mess hall in the company of a red cross nurse he would he had come to know name to kitty and he found out that if you woke up at a certain time he could basically leap off the dock onto the cargo netting of the departing ship transport c going out to where e troops were sleeping, crawl up like a buccaneer, hop over without anyone seeing and be back in time for morning. Some of the compatriots cheered him on. He didnt consider military a longterm military career . No scenic he was already behind the gunde he had already stayed a little bit too late. While doing research for the book we found a cache of letters he had written home to his family and friends and all the letters he had received and then he had been sent back to his assessor and told her to dutifully filed them all away, so he was t a bit of a pack rat and had them for like i guess 70 some years packed away. We are talking out about what page . 45, so he wouldve been 23 and i think he thought he would only make a captain by a certain age of my then all the people that were captain he was just kind of behind the trajectory. And a fully expected to participate in the invasion of the japan, denis . He was very relieved because they were in the preparation for it and he thought that they were they talked about the casualty estimates for american troops, 60 , and they were all very anxious when truman droppen the bomb on hiroshima and nagasaki they were relieved and that even came up in a meeting they had in beaumont during a campaign and brooks was very outspoken. He didnt have to agree with them, but he would tell you what he saw him when it came time for a question he said well, he should have dropped a third and his staff gasped. But, they look than the cameras had just been turned off. In those letters, i mean, he was the classic overachiever, so he was friends with all of the kind of student body class president s and secret society clubs and they exchanged a letters about what they would do after school and he knew he wanted to come back and get his license and run for congress. I think he knew he had a role to play as a congressman. You know i think we are still in the 60s, but as time went on and he learned kind of the tilevers and the market nationsf congress how he could use his position and he did it through the Government Operations committee and judiciary and thats kind of the time came. He was the person perfectly positioned to really in the next biggest thing that came up was obviously the impeachment hearings. We will get to that in a second. He did run didnt he run first for the legislature . For two terms, but always had his eye on his goal was to get lamarr college in beaumont to make it a statefunded university and if so he tried and the tried and failed and then the next term he came back and tried to some more and told people what effect because all these students from that area had to go away to go to college, i mean, in order to get a full degree and he really he cared about that for his constituents and so he did it. Floats came and they both came and they missed by a margin or two and then he decided well, he was going to take all these legislators on a trip down the river and have a party and he said when they went down the river it was lamarr college. When they came back up the river it was lamarr university. I think a lot of people have never heard of him because he did things that were important, but didnt you know get lots of publicity. For instance, light bulbs. At that point and im not sure exactly which year there wasnt now, we are fast forwarding to when he was in congress . In the congress now. Why do lightbulbs burnout so much so much, theres no reasonu to because we know they can last longer and sohe he pushed and gt legislation that made them change the way they make light bulbs so we have a life that on longer and dont cost as much. An aide was switching light bulbs again and he said expletive, why do i bulbs burn out so fast because technology had not changed since the firsth lightbulb. The other thing was that he also cared about other issues that were important people like for instance, computers. The whole notion of having computers. The government had basically or ibm had a monopoly in the government was renting them and he said why are its we buying them. Said we dont have to keep paying the same rent over and over and he had the change so that now there is much more Free Enterprise with the computers. There was a lot of other didnt he do a lot to bring about the computer age you know for a texas congressman . A lot of the original brooks act in 1965 he took the computing specialists and the gsa had compiled in saying with this is what the government needs to do with these different systems that dont talk to each other. We have got downtime in the va. We have a surplus of work to do over in the Health Education and Welfare Department and he said okay, well we are going to write a bill and if these Companies Want to sell or lease to the federal government they all have to be interoperable to does the term, be able to write your code and have a play on someone elses machine then vice versa and this really set the stage for the modern it industry. At this point ibm had 75 market share and they basically told the federal government this is what we will sell you this and this is how you will use it and this is how much we will charge you. Which is what a monopoly does theres also a lot of relevance to today and brooks life story and that is something that is a congressman he served on a panel that was impeaching a federal judge, so he had to learn kind of the rules of impeachment and then he well, you can take over the story from there. This was 1970. This was a federal judge, liberal federal judge to ask had accepted a speaking fee. William douglas, great liberal Supreme Court justice. Brooks was put on a select panel, congressmen and senators to basically decide if there was reasonable evidence that impeachment investigation should be brought into its. They spent months on it finally came out with the report that said no, theres not enough evidence. That was 1970. Then 1974 comes around and hes the only person on the judiciary with any impeachment experience, so and people think the reason why those impeachment hearings work kicked into the judiciary was because tip oneill who i think was the majority leader at the time had such a rapport with the jack and had so much faith in his worker that he wanted him to take the reins and even though jack brooks was not chairman, was in the next senior member, but he knew that jack brooks was really the driving force behind they judiciary and he would give it his all. And he got together with his staff and there was a couple of dozen possible t impeachment articles and he said no, he wanted it down to three to five really strong articles and thats what they did in a back room or a broom closet somewhere , but they got this list together and they brought it out and gave it to pulsar vein who is the new senator from the maryland and he read the impeachment articles at the same time that he had not read before and if it had not been for the smoking gun that tape thats where it would have gone to these impeachment articles, but instead they soon resigned to the next week. He reduced the possible articles to a manageable few. There were 35 congressman who had submitted individual resolution for our impeachment and among those 35 resolution theres essentially there were 52 charges. They said okay you have started this hearing and you are not to investigate anymore. You are basically to take the evidence from the senates, the watergates hearings and you are to determine if from that material there are Impeachable Offenses, so it just sat. Chairman oneill from new york just kind of that and he and the special prosecutor that he selected didnt want to make a mistake. They knew the world the nations eyes were on them and this was a president from the opposing party so they didnt want to see seem overzealous, so their method was to go slow and have everything out in the open and bring everyone in and brooks was like no lets get this done. Forget about the optics. Forget about have a process but lets get started so after six months of virtually no action he said okay, going to do it so he took maybe about 15 or 17 of the most critical charges and kicked them out to his committee his Staff Members and said lets see what we can come up with and they came up with 10 and they only brought three before the committee, but they only needed one. Y e it was kickstarting thiso say, you know, we need to get something done. We have been going on for months and months and he didnt want it to be another long drawn out legalistic fight over this, so he tried to make sure the articles of impeachment dealt with constitutional issues and not like what is this mean and you confided out and appeal it to the Supreme Court. She wanted it to be strict constitutional impeachment. The language, you can go to the center for American History and see that perhaps that he just redline and it was crossed out and conspired, acted in concert with. He didnt want any loaded words. Vital evidence and he crossed out vital and just withheld evidence so he was very exact. Sounds like he was sort of a newspaper editor newspaper editor. [laughter] that could be. He hadnt lost that end at law school had helped. Daily texan. So, its nose apprise, i guess, that nixon called him that executioner and had we know he did that . Did he do that in public or he did that in private and we relentlessly looked for specific first source mentions of this and i think we just have to chalk it up to political lore because everyone knows about it, i mean, it was in newspapers that people were talking about this and i think it is because he was the force behind the impeachment hearings. He forced the hand when they were wishywashy about should we , i mean, we already sent him a subpoena and he doesnt want to follow it, so what can we do and he said write the letter again and demand he reply. And i think maybe the real reason is because right before the articles were released the dino called all the democratic members of the committee together and said okay, so what are we going to do and brooks kind of probably took a cigar out of his mouth and said well, all we have to do do decide is are we going to shoot him or hang him. [laughter] prior to this, after agnew resigned and afford was chosen to be the new Vice President s, brooks had enough foresight to say lets ask these questions and he had a list of 52 questions to put to forward as if for did become the Vice President , which was pretty obvious he was in the nixon left then ford would become president , so he wanted ford on record saying what is an Impeachable Offense or if this president did this, you know, did he deserve to stay in office lie to the public, lie to congress, falsified tax records, 52 separate items. So, he was thinking ahead. Ford was minority leader then how did he feel about this grilling . You know porter later wrote a note to him thanking him. He said you were top, but thayer great. Great the fair . Great but thayer. Thats my editor. I keep going back to because im so curious, that personal relationship going back to lbj and it was almost like they were the best friends or family that the couples were best friends. Do you know that did business get done during these social evenings which were lots and lots of them. He didnt want to watch tv alone. Well, i dont think jonathan watched gunsmoke. I think politics was their socialization. Thats what they talked about and thats what they enjoyed talking about here today would go through and just kind of blue sky what things they were going to suggest and how much support they would or it. The letters between them thinking each other for their support and you see all these papers at the briscoe center, but johnson famously said that the only congressman he was afraid of was jack brooks. Did they ever clash . Of did they ever disagree . They did. The details are a little murky but it was over the appointed of a federal judge in the 50s and they didnt talk for many years spent justice or lower court . A lower court. Someone wanted someone appointed and someone wanted someone else. Thats what the tif was over. How did he get along with forward as president . He liked ford because he thought he could just have his way. Great coming out. He liked ford because he was a decent man and he kind of represented a lot of weight. He personally disliked about nixon and he had worked with forward for a long time up until that point, so he respected him. He also fought him tooth and nail of the budget forward came in and said she came into the white house with worn away inflation and there were all these defense projects that were kind of running amok and he wanted toun do a lot of interesting things with the budget that had a support, but maybe wasnt the best idea and the one congressman that stood in his way was jack brooks and he said no, were not going to do this. We wont continue some of these programs that may be popular, but are wrong for the federal governments. All politicians, i mean, jimmy carter wrote in his memoir about how difficult it was at first dealing with brooks. He wanted reorganization and brooks said that was the prerogative of congress and not for him to do. It took him a while to warm up to each other. Who did brooks did brooks is supported candidate in that race before the nomination . Not that im aware of. So he i dont know. But, he campaigned for carter . Is a partisan democrat, no question about it. Ford had another nickname for him, so about the budget brooks did talk to the media quite a bit about that. He said you know, look what we are going to do to this budget what we do to rattlesnakes in rexas, killed them when they are young, so that got him the name snake killer. He went from executioner to snake killer. To mr. Chairman. To mr. Chairman. [applause]. I think that is a good point to break for a second and get to some of the questions from the audience here. Derek has microphone. As i say hold it in front of you and anyone with the question down here . Any questions . We will start right in front. Hello and thank you for being here. Wanted to know if you have any harsonal stories that you liked particularly . Kind of personal antidotes are lovely and are there any you thought we should know about that didnt make it into the conversation already . What i like is that he was such a hard worker and he demanded absolute discipline and hard work from his staff and he was a tough about finding people loved him for it, but he was a tough boss. I remember reading a story about a young staffer who was in his office and just absolutely tickled the congressman, the chairman had invited him over to the house on saturday presumably for lunch and so he drives to the house in mclean, virginia, knocks on the door the chairman opens up and said good you are here. Meet me around back, i have a brush for you to clear. Chairman of committees were like gods as a someone said and they could chairman bowed to their wishes about legislation and so if they wanted something they were the experts in the field. There is one story i like about brooks. Its a different time now. People in washington, they dont live in the same neighborhoods. Some of them dont even live in washington. And they just commute back to their districts and spend it for three days in dc. Before, people the kids would go to the same school. You know, usually it would be wise not spouses, but wives who would be in a social program together, so it was something that was a natural way. There was god knows they were partisan, but it didnt have this error of personal destruction, so anyway brooks lived in this Brooks Family in this culdesac in virginia. One of the former governors of virginia lived down the block. Strom thurmond is the wellknown segregationist and he was about two or three doors down. Wednesday strom she was also besides being a segregationist, he was known for marrying a woman 42 years his junior. So, one day strawmen brooks were walking to get towards each other on the sidewalk and thurmond very proudly said, you know we are having a baby. [laughter] brooks looked at him and paused, looked up and said, who do you suspect. [laughter] other questions . I would like to go back to he talked about the relationship between johnson and brooks, but from the way you have described it, it seems like they had very different ambitions and, of course, johnson had many masters from brown and root to russell and all of these others that he was working to try to gain influence and moved to a higher office, but it seems to me that brooks is seemed more like raburn insofar as he wanted to be first among his peers and house, but what i want to know is, i mean, those are very roughandtumble times in the Democratic Party in particular with such a coalition of very different factions. Did you identify masters that brooks had, you know interest he had to serve and beyond that if you could talk a little bit about his eventual fall in the loss of his final election. I may go to the last thing first. So, it was 94, the crime the bill that president clinton wanted, brooks had shepherded it in different forms. He believed that it was important to separate them because the assault weapons ban was part of it and he knew that was a killer issue. This was on the bill which meant it was like 10 different massive bills combined into one. Tough on crime bill, also. Which is now playing out even now, i mean, besides the assault weapon, yeah. It was disastrous effect, but, i mean, at that point and this is 94, clinton was insistent clintons memoir he talks about this and says he shouldve littons listened to brooks and as some others because they said this is going to kill us ad the polls. Assault weapons ban that one, but clinton said i wanted altogether. So, they voted for it and 50 democratic congressman lost of their seats including tom foley who is the only speaker of the house current speaker to lose his seat, so thats what, you know, the blowback from that in 94. Brooks was an nra member. Like i said he was a Texas Democrat. He wasnt kind of soft on anything. He believed in the second amendment. Nra. Believed in the nra. Nra invited him to be eight he knows he care for years prior and he was also hosted a congressional turkey hunt like a skeet shoot in fairfax, virginia every year, i mean, as far as kind of gun the supporting congressman, he was the guy. Lesson learned from that election was you cant slip up wants with that particular lobby question over here. You have not talked about his ability to get along with republicans. Actually, there were i mean not all republicans, but there were a good number ofli republicans that he counted as his friends and even if they opposed on some legislation, he was always willing to work with them. Bob dole. One thing about when there was a meeting between the house leadership and the senate leadership, the house wanted a bill to go through the senate or the Senate People led by bob dole wanted this legislation approved so we could move on and so they made a deal, but dole said, but i want that in writing and from your leaders and your leadership and then as he was leaving someone said well, what about brooks and he said not, brooks word is good. Then, brooks in fact it got back to his office and called up dole and said i dont know what he said exactly but probably like dammit, dont let me only be looked at them from my readership, you know. Dont complement me. [laughter] you know, tip oneill was famous for his ability to get along with republicans. For example, president reagan. Examples to you have of mr. Brooks getting along with the other side . Well, he eventually agreed with ford on the budget. Reagan invited him to the oval office to discuss legislative matters again and again. Herbert walker did, he was always very good about referring to him as the chairman, i mean, he was always deferential when brooks was in the room, i mean, another i mean, if we had more time to write another couple chapters in the book or any other future congressional researchers out there, theres a guy i think from new york, republican named frank horton and he was the Ranking Member on the house governmental Operations Committee for years and years in between the two of them the number of marquis just lifechanging bills that the two of them sponsor togetherth and push through congress is just amazing. Inspectors general act, the paperwork reduction act which reduced federal bureaucracy, Consumer Protection act which eventually failed, but, i mean, it failed in that congress witht carter, but it was eventually passed. So, i mean, he and frank horton whereas prolific as any pair of the democrat and republican in congress during that time. I would like to take the prerogative to ask a question of my own. One thing i think gets lost in the fun stories is the hard work of congress. Theres a, in the book about workhorses versus a show horses and one of the reasons we dont know so much about jackse brooks is that he was one of the workhorses and he was doing the actual job of a representative, democrat or republican by saving the country money. I know there were a lot of brooks bills and a lot of things , you mentioned the idea. Were there other aspects where his work just as a legislator helped the country as a whole . He always saw the federal government as an agent for good and he saw the leverage in the past kind of reach the government had as a way of kind of bullying the private industry interactive model or producing a type of product or services that people needed. Apparently he did not believe like reagan that the government was the enemy. He thought the government is what was helping people and things can be perfected and be better, but it wasnt the same feeling that you have to be against the government. He was totally for the government. I think im going to wrap this up with one final question. Because you all know and have studied jack brooks is so much, if he were to step into the Democratic Caucus right now, these days what advice would you give the Democratic Caucus about the way things are done . You mean apart from the blistering language . [laughter] i think it really interesting insight into what he might do today is what nancy pelosi is doing today because she was in office for about six or eight years while he was still there and she didnt survive his committees, but she definitely looked up to him as a mentor, so i think some of the acts shes doing where shes not responding to the 24 hour news cycle and some of the more maybe younger firebrands right away shes taking a more cautious approach and making sure everything is done correctly. I think that is one indication as to what he might suggest, i he was a stickler for details and he knew the issues on legislation, everything inside and out better than anyone. There is a quote from an article in Texas Monthly from the early 70s and one of those things was a quote about brooke was theirs things that make a politician effective or not on the hill is how strong their substantive position and how much elbow grease can they put into it and it jack brooks had both. I think thats probably can i say one more thing as a reader liked my prerogative as a reader. I just want to congratulate you to the brilliance of the title. I think its a wonderful title. When you think about it a bit tt has so many multiple meetings, yeah, there is that, the monster with a cigar ready to slice the head off of whoever hes questioning, whatever government waster, but that word mean also suggest the golden mean, also suggests methods, ways of doing things and he was able to do so much good that is now sneered at as government wastes and he sought the means to get these things done at the lowest possible price in the highest possible quality and we need a bit more of that. He took that title, which call and gave him about meanest man in congress and he took it as a point of pride that he was tough. He also, corporate ceos and paragon generals and other Department Heads would be before the committee and they would they would brooks told the staff what they really mean is sweet old brooks. [laughter] [applause]. I told you it would be a fascinating evening and it has been and its not over yet. A cappella books has copies of the the meanest man in congress for sale in the lobby and i encourage you to get it with holidays coming up. The mcnultys will sign copies of them out front and there is also some dessert and coffee for you as well, so please join me in thanking them all one more time. [applause]. Thank you very much. Boutique carries book fairs and festivals all around the country. Are 2020 festival season will kick off in january followed by the savanna but festival in georgia and in march book tv visits arizona for the tucson festival of the books and later that month the virginia festival will take place in charlottesville. For more information about upcoming book fairs and festivals and watch our previous festival coverage click the book fairs tab on our website, book tv. Org. I didnt have to even say anything. You are well trained bunch. A good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon and welcome to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and education center. As director of Public Programs i get this privilege on a regular si
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