Brooks was invited to the White House in 1982 and presented an original of a cartoon making fun of Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill to President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office. Senator John Glenn's wife, Annie, requested the original of another cartoon showing Glenn rowing alone in the center of a river while a donkey leads Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, George McGovern and Jesse Jackson in a larger boat on "the left". Glenn wrote Brooks that it was the best gift his wife had given him and that it was the only cartoon he hung in his office. Former head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, also requested a Brooks original cartoon, which he hung in his office.