The Congress: Mr. Speaker

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McCormack took his friend's advice, waged a gentlemanly campaign without any real expectation of winning—and lost gracefully. In a post-election letter, Gallivan expressed his thanks: "Let me congratulate you on the splendid and clean manner in which you conducted your campaign. It was a source of sincere regret that I had to have you as my opponent." Two years passed, and Jim Gallivan did indeed drop dead. Nine Democrats, including John McCormack, filed for the party's nomination to succeed Gallivan. The Irish masters of Boston—including Kingmaker James Michael Curley and Martin Lomasney, boss of the Eighth Ward—recalled McCormack favorably and spread the word that he was their man. "They figured McCormack was the type who, if he got to Congress, would stay there." recalls Lawyer James Sullivan, one of the eight disappointed also-rans. "They were right—he's never moved."

Member of the Board. The U.S. in 1928 was at the pinnacle of Republican prosperity, but Depression—and the Democrats—were soon to come. In Washington, John Nance Garner of Texas was floor leader of the Democratic House minority. Garner and his crony, Texas Representative Sam Rayburn, were ever on the lookout for promising newcomers, and they liked the look of the freshman from Boston. McCormack voted his party's line undeviatingly. He worked diligently at the menial committee assignments that are a new Congressman's lot, and he quickly learned the procedural rules of the House.

McCormack was an expert poker player, a talent that endeared him to Jack Garner, who was later called "a poker playing, whisky-drinking, evil old man" by John L. Lewis, and whose own political career had been given a hefty bipartisan push forward by a poker-playing Republican, "Uncle Joe" Cannon. McCormack became a Garner protégé. At the beginning of McCormack's second full term, the Democrats took control of the House, and McCormack went to Speaker Garner with a timid request for an assignment to the Judiciary Committee. "Hell," growled Garner, "we want you on Ways & Means." McCormack was dumfounded, for Ways & Means was and is one of the most powerful and sought-after committees in the House. McCormack followed Garner's instructions and persuaded the Massachusetts delegation to nominate him for the post; then Sam Rayburn called to tell him that the entire Texas delegation would vote for him. McCormack was the first Democratic Representative to win the cherished assignment after less than two terms in office.

From the moment of his elevation to