Peddling Influence: Thomas "Tommy the Cork" Corcoran and the Birth of Modern Lobbying

It is somewhat surprising that it has taken this long to get a full-length biography of Thomas Corcoran, who along with Benjamin V. Cohen was responsible for much of the New Deal legislative program. After his government service, Corcoran pioneered in developing a highly influential legislative representation practice, concocting a unique mixture of law, politics and corporate America that continued until the late 1970's. The book is a fair assessment of Corcoran, covering both his virtues and his flaws. As to the latter category, the chapter on "Lobbying the Court" recounts in a dispassionate fashion the episode where Corcoran was accused of having gone over the ethical line in dealing with Justice Black on a pending case. The chapters dealing with Corcoran's clerkship with Justice Holmes, the Court Packing episode, and the drafting of key pieces of New Deal legislation are particularly effective. But there is much more of interest here as well: Corcoran's involvement with a whole cast of Washington characters including FDR, Jim Farley, Truman, Justices Douglas and Frankfurter, Eisenhower, Anna Chennault, LBJ, Nixon and Abe Fortas to name just a few. The book does a fine job in filling the gap in our political history that resulted from the absence of Corcoran getting his biographical due. The book also nicely complements William Lasser's recent biography of Benjamin V. Cohen. Corcoran and Cohen together again!