[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 147 (Tuesday, November 29, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE JACK BROOKS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Frost] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  (Mr. FROST asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, when I was elected to Congress 16 years ago, 
people asked me who in the Texas delegation I would pattern my career 
after. I told them without qualification that the two Texas Congressmen 
I most respected were Jack Brooks and Jim Wright. I have followed that 
course from my first day here and I have never regretted my decision.
  No one is perfect and I have not always agreed with Jack on every 
single issue, but I have enormous respect for the way he has handled 
his job. He is direct, he is honest and he does what he tells you he is 
going to do. He doesn't round the edges or tell you what you want to 
hear. He tells you exactly the ways things are.
  Jack is first and foremost a Democrat. He never has an identity 
crisis about what it means to be a member of our party and he does not 
have a great deal of patience with those Members of Congress who have 
trouble understanding what it means to be a Democrat.
  Jack is loyal and he has guts. He supports his friends and the 
leadership of his party even when there is a personal cost to himself. 
This year, he stood by his President and his party leadership and voted 
for the final version of the crime bill even though it contained a 
provision he violently opposed. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 
he felt he had no other choice. That decision may have cost him his 
seat in Congress. But he didn't run for cover when the going got tough.
  In the mid 1950's Jack Brooks made an extraordinarily courageous 
decision. He was one of a handful of Southern Congressmen who did not 
sign the Southern Manifesto protesting the Supreme Court school 
desegregation decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
  I will miss Jack tremendously. His political instincts are sound, his 
advice was always good--even when I didn't take it--and his friendship 
is irreplaceable. The Congress and the Country are better off for the 
years of service provided by my friend, Jack Brooks.

                          ____________________