WASHINGTON — The legal career of Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas, almost ended before it began. As a teenager, the future federal prosecutor confused “reverse” and “drive” on a borrowed stick-shift car and plowed through the window of a hearing-aid shop in Carbondale, Ill., where the proprietor had to yank an older customer to safety.

“My daughter told him he could drive, but what he did not say was that he didn’t know how,” said Mary Koster, whose Chevette hurtled through the window that day.

The accident is an apt metaphor for Mr. Ratcliffe’s recent political trajectory, in which he has ridden light experience and a flair for at-times reckless braggadocio to become President Trump’s nominee to be America’s top spy, the director of national intelligence.

Mr. Ratcliffe gunned for the job last July, slammed on the brakes, but is back in drive, with Mr. Trump giving senators a choice: confirm a nominee they objected to last summer or accept an equally contentious candidate, the acting director Richard Grenell, for at least the rest of the year.