“DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS” is doubtless an imperative that Walter Jones has seen on bumper stickers in Washington. Yet Jones, a Republican congressman from North Carolina, has found a cause that has compelled him to mess with the Lone Star State. Actually, with Lyndon Johnson.

“He’s the one man that’s responsible for all this,” says Jones during an interview in his office. By “this,” Jones means a provision in the tax code that tax-exempt organizations may not “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”