Jack Brooks dies, Jack Brooks, an irascible, cigar-chomping former Texas congressman who over 42 years defied fellow Southerners to support civil rights, investigated abuses by Presidents Nixon and Reagan and repeatedly attacked government waste, down to the cost of wrenches, died on Tuesday night in Beaumont, Tex. He was 89.
The Associated Press quoted a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department statement as saying Mr. Brooks died at Baptist Hospital of Beaumont after a sudden illness.
Mr. Brooks ascended to the legislative pantheon under the tutelage of two legendary Texas Democrats, House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Lyndon B. Johnson, both as a senator and as president, and became a swashbuckling Texas character in his own right. His politics were pro-labor, pro-gun, fiercely partisan and boldly unapologetic, particularly when it came to funneling federal funds to his East Texas district.
He played a supporting role in one of the most famous news photographs of the 20th century, that of President Johnson being sworn in as president on Air Force One in Dallas after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Mr. Brooks, who had been in the presidential motorcade, stands behind Jacqueline Kennedy.
He had run Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign in his district, where Kennedy won by 40,000 votes. In October 1963, he was the only one of nine Southerners on the judiciary committee to vote for the Kennedy administration’s civil rights bill.
When President Johnson took up the bill after Kennedy’s murder, Mr. Brooks was one of 11 out of 92 Southerners to vote for it on the House floor in 1964.
President Nixon, he loathed. Mr. Brooks said he would have voted to impeach Mr. Nixon on Jan. 21, 1969, but it “would not have looked good” to do it the day he was inaugurated, Jan. 20. Five and a half years later, as a ranking member of the judiciary committee, he helped draft the articles of impeachment that prompted President Nixon to resign.
He was also a leader in the House investigation of President Reagan for trading arms for hostages and using the proceeds to finance the right-leaning Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
Mr. Brooks’s accomplishments included passing laws to revamp government procurement and to require federal agencies to have inspector generals. But he attracted more notice with his highly publicized investigations of the life of light bulbs, the number of coats of paint used on government buildings and airline pilots who let flight attendants fly jetliners.
Mr. Brooks’s sharp edge showed in an unsuccessful effort to impeach President Reagan, not to mention in his refusing to allow Republicans at luncheons of the Texas congressional caucus. He ostentatiously puffed his cigars in nonsmoking areas.
He pulled no punches. After John Poindexter, Mr. Reagan’s national security adviser, and Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams testified to the judiciary committee about the Iran-Contra affair, Mr. Brooks called each “a lying son of a bitch.”
An aide to President Johnson called the representative “one of the few men L.B.J. was ever afraid of,” while President Richard M. Nixon dubbed him “the executioner.” Mr. Brooks nurtured a coalition of minorities, labor unions, pro-choice activists and loyal Democrats to win 20 straight Congressional elections. His defeat in the Republican Congressional landslide in 1994 reflected the long, steady rise of well-funded Republicans and anti-abortion organizers, as well as the defection of the Teamsters and some public employees unions.
The most proximate cause of his defeat was his antagonizing the gun lobby by voting for a crime bill that included banning 19 firearms as assault weapons. Mr. Brooks had fought vainly to remove the ban, but ultimately voted for the bill approved by the judiciary committee he chaired.
This left a gaping opening for his Republican opponent, Steve Stockman, a 37-year-old accountant making a third try for the seat.
“The problem that Brooks did was paint himself into a corner, quite frankly,” Mr. Stockman told The Washington Post after the election. “He sent letters saying, ‘I will do anything to stop the gun ban.’
The Associated Press quoted a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department statement as saying Mr. Brooks died at Baptist Hospital of Beaumont after a sudden illness.
Mr. Brooks ascended to the legislative pantheon under the tutelage of two legendary Texas Democrats, House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Lyndon B. Johnson, both as a senator and as president, and became a swashbuckling Texas character in his own right. His politics were pro-labor, pro-gun, fiercely partisan and boldly unapologetic, particularly when it came to funneling federal funds to his East Texas district.
He played a supporting role in one of the most famous news photographs of the 20th century, that of President Johnson being sworn in as president on Air Force One in Dallas after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Mr. Brooks, who had been in the presidential motorcade, stands behind Jacqueline Kennedy.
He had run Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign in his district, where Kennedy won by 40,000 votes. In October 1963, he was the only one of nine Southerners on the judiciary committee to vote for the Kennedy administration’s civil rights bill.
When President Johnson took up the bill after Kennedy’s murder, Mr. Brooks was one of 11 out of 92 Southerners to vote for it on the House floor in 1964.
President Nixon, he loathed. Mr. Brooks said he would have voted to impeach Mr. Nixon on Jan. 21, 1969, but it “would not have looked good” to do it the day he was inaugurated, Jan. 20. Five and a half years later, as a ranking member of the judiciary committee, he helped draft the articles of impeachment that prompted President Nixon to resign.
He was also a leader in the House investigation of President Reagan for trading arms for hostages and using the proceeds to finance the right-leaning Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
Mr. Brooks’s accomplishments included passing laws to revamp government procurement and to require federal agencies to have inspector generals. But he attracted more notice with his highly publicized investigations of the life of light bulbs, the number of coats of paint used on government buildings and airline pilots who let flight attendants fly jetliners.
Mr. Brooks’s sharp edge showed in an unsuccessful effort to impeach President Reagan, not to mention in his refusing to allow Republicans at luncheons of the Texas congressional caucus. He ostentatiously puffed his cigars in nonsmoking areas.
He pulled no punches. After John Poindexter, Mr. Reagan’s national security adviser, and Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams testified to the judiciary committee about the Iran-Contra affair, Mr. Brooks called each “a lying son of a bitch.”
An aide to President Johnson called the representative “one of the few men L.B.J. was ever afraid of,” while President Richard M. Nixon dubbed him “the executioner.” Mr. Brooks nurtured a coalition of minorities, labor unions, pro-choice activists and loyal Democrats to win 20 straight Congressional elections. His defeat in the Republican Congressional landslide in 1994 reflected the long, steady rise of well-funded Republicans and anti-abortion organizers, as well as the defection of the Teamsters and some public employees unions.
The most proximate cause of his defeat was his antagonizing the gun lobby by voting for a crime bill that included banning 19 firearms as assault weapons. Mr. Brooks had fought vainly to remove the ban, but ultimately voted for the bill approved by the judiciary committee he chaired.
This left a gaping opening for his Republican opponent, Steve Stockman, a 37-year-old accountant making a third try for the seat.
“The problem that Brooks did was paint himself into a corner, quite frankly,” Mr. Stockman told The Washington Post after the election. “He sent letters saying, ‘I will do anything to stop the gun ban.’
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