Meanest Man in Congress, The

From his youth in a rough corner of Texas to his service in the Marines in World War II and on to Congress to help build Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, Jack Brooks’s story is full of lessons for lawmakers, for voters, for Americans searching for meaning in confusing times. The McNultys have created a highly readable account of a fascinating, important man’s life and times.

Right when we all seem to have forgotten what public service and political compromise ought to look like, along comes The Meanest Man in Congress to remind us. Jack Brooks — crusty, colorful and, yes, mean — leaps off the pages into our collective consciousness in this timely biography. Timothy and Brendan McNulty show us a Congress that actually functioned thanks to leaders like Brooks, who bullied federal bureaucrats into saving billions and forced manufacturers to produce a better light bulb. Alongside mentors Sam Rayburn and LBJ, the cigar-chomping East Texan knew how to find common ground with opponents, usually over drinks, even as he broke with fellow southern Democrats to support the 1964 Civil Rights Act and pass the 1994 assault weapons ban. The gun bill proved to be his undoing, but it was just as well: Brooks’ brand of consensus-politics left the building right around the same time he did.

* Texas Tribune investigative reporter and author of “Oops! A Diary From the 2012 Campaign Trail” *

I can't think of any member of Congress who did more for America's space program than Jack Brooks. As the book points out, Brooks strengthened NASA during it's formative years and later saved the International Space Station (ISS) in the post-Cold War era when Congress sought to cancel Big Science programs in favor of producing a budgetary peace dividend for America. Today, a quarter of a century later, the ISS still circles high above the Earth as a symbol of America's ability to bring the nations of the world together in peaceful exploration of space.

Brendan and Timothy McNulty have written an eminently readable political biography of one of our nation's longest-serving Congressmen that also chronicles the era when the words 'bipartisan' and 'compromise' weren't anathema. This remarkable achievement provides an illuminating reminder of how well government can work when patriotism supersedes partisanship, and how a politician's relatives can use their status for the greater good, as opposed to personal enrichment.

* former Washington bureau chief, Tribune Company, former news editor, Bloomberg Politics *

His story is one to remember. Read this and enjoy. The next time someone tries to tell you a decent, honorable, hard-working guy can’t get anywhere in American politics, or in the U.S. Congress, remember Jack Brooks, and rejoice.

Jack Brooks is a Texas original. In a legislative world of “workhorses” and “showhorses,” the “meanest man in Congress” was a workhorse from his earliest days in the Texas Legislature to his storied career serving in the U.S. Congress. He was a friend to presidents, an ally to House Speakers, feared by many, and respected by all. Cigar chomping, irascible, and fiercely dedicated to his beliefs, Brooks shaped Texas and national politics for four decades. This book is a fascinating window into the political history of the post-World War II era and a must read for anyone interested in Texas politics. This is a book you want on your shelf. But more than anything it is a darn fun read. I lost track of the number of terrific stories, new historical details, and laugh out loud anecdotes.

When I came to the Congress, Jack Brooks proved a guide and a friend. He was a master legislator, canny operator and giant of the House, who brought a formidable mix of charm and intellect to the fight for liberty, equality and justice for the American people. Jack had no fear of unpopular opinions or of reaching across the aisle to pursue the common good, and his principled leadership and political courage, richly chronicled in this first ever biography on his life, leave an extraordinary legacy.

Timothy and Brendan McNulty provide us with a much-needed full-length political biography of Texas Congressman Jack Brooks. After brief service in the Texas House, Brooks served in Congress for forty-two eventful years. He was a leading figure among two generations of Lone Star political legends that included John Nance ‘Cactus Jack’ Garner, Sam Rayburn, Lyndon Johnson, Dolph Briscoe, Jim Wright, and many others. Any student of Texas and national politics in the mid-twentieth century will relish looking again at those turbulent times through the squinting, purposeful, skeptical eyes of that great Texan — Beaumont’s Congressman Jack Brooks.

* author of The American Dream: In History, Politics, and Fiction *

With prose that is at times lyrical and occasionally searing, Judge Alsup shares a deeply personal account of his experience growing up in very modest circumstances in segregated rural Mississippi, where 'the Civil War felt as if it had just ended.' Alsup becomes an active participant in the turbulent struggle for civil rights and racial equality. His career culminates as an accomplished lawyer and ultimately as a highly regarded federal judge. This riveting narrative, in which personal and historical events are skillfully interwoven, is adorned with gems such as the author’s observation that his parents—despite their segregationist views—'essentially agreed with Lincoln that anyone who believed in slavery should try it on for size.'

From the Great Society to Watergate to the Iran-Contra scandal to the Clinton crime bill, Congressman Jack Brooks was a larger-than-life figure in our nation’s political history. His dedication to vigorous Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch should stand as a role model for today’s legislators. The Meanest Man in Congress tells his remarkable story.