The Meanest Man in Congress: Jack Brooks and the Making of an American Century by Brendan McNulty and Tim McNulty

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Meanest Man in Congress: Jack Brooks and the Making of an American Century by Brendan McNulty and Tim McNulty Craig Goodman The Meanest Man in Congress: Jack Brooks and the Making of an American Century. By Brendan McNulty and Tim McNulty. (Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, 2019. Pp. xviii, 556. $32.95, ISBN 978-1-58838-321-1.) Using the personal archives of Representative Jack Brooks, Democrat of Texas, Brandon McNulty and Tim McNulty have written an interesting and important biography of an influential yet little-known member of Congress. Brooks was first elected to Congress in 1952 and represented southeastern Texas [End Page 538] until his defeat in 1994. Brooks’s career epitomized what Kenneth A. Shepsle describes as the “Textbook Congress,” where committees and their chairs were powerful actors but congressional leaders exercised less direct control over the House of Representatives (“The Changing Textbook Congress,” in John E. Chubb and Paul E. Peterson, eds., Can the Government Govern? [Washington, D.C., 1989], pp. 238–66). Brooks’s career unfolded against broader changes occurring in party politics that culminated in the realignment of white conservatives in the South that eventually cost Brooks his seat in Congress and that continues to affect American politics today. The career of Jack Brooks vividly illustrates the central role of the legislative branch in the American system of separated institutions sharing powers. Members of Congress are both representatives and lawmakers. Brooks embraced both roles during his long congressional career as he directed benefits to his congressional district while playing a critical role shaping public policies and challenging presidents of both parties. Like Lyndon B. Johnson, Brooks quickly figured out how to build relationships by figuring out what other members needed, and he learned the critical art of bargaining and compromise essential in a collective body. Political entrepreneurship is vital, as members decide how to allocate their resources and build relationships allowing them to exercise influence over public policies, and Brooks excelled at this part of the legislative game. Especially between 1973 and 1994, Brooks was one of the most effective members of the House of Representatives, often outperforming his expected legislative effectiveness and routinely ranking among the most effective Democrats. He aggressively championed consumer rights and often challenged corporations to change their policies; he was a pivotal figure in high-profile investigations such as Watergate and Iran-Contra, but Brooks was also the driving force promoting the adoption of computers in Congress so that the legislative branch could perform its work more efficiently. Using NOMINATE data, we can see that Brooks routinely remained more liberal than two-thirds of the Democratic caucus throughout his career, even as the political environment was beginning to change around him. Brooks was a liberal Democrat, and a loyal Democrat, who often supported his party 90 percent of the time. Brooks worked with the party leadership, especially Sam Rayburn, when it would be beneficial, but he was not afraid to buck party leaders when it was in the best interests of his district. Today a centralized and powerful leadership directs much of the activity in the House of Representatives. Ultimately, the changing political environment of Texas caught up with Brooks, as he lost his 1994 reelection campaign. After the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, white southerners began leaving the Democratic Party, and the 1970s was marked by high levels of split-ticket voting. As voters aligned their ideological and partisan preferences, the Republican Party replaced the Democratic Party as the dominant political party in the South, which contributed to increasing political polarization in the United States. Brooks remained a staunch liberal, but like other white Democrats representing rural areas of the South, his kind would become extinct. [End Page 539] Change is constant in American politics, and the biography of Representative Jack Brooks illustrates important changes in our nation. Brooks’s career spanned a period that may prove to have been an anomaly rather than the norm in American political history, characterized by substantive lawmaking instead of message politics (see Frances E. Lee, Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign [Chicago, 2016]). For people concerned about the separation of powers, the story of Jack...