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SHORTLY AFTER Congress reconvenes next month, 42 House members and one senator will take a daylong retreat to craft the Congressional Black Caucus' political plan for the new term. The group must shape an agenda that encompasses the views of an increasingly independent-minded constituency separated by class and social affiliations, political beliefs and religious convictions, life experiences and personal ambitions. It must then try to promote this agenda in a Republican-controlled Congress heavily influenced by a re-elected president who snubbed caucus members in his first term. Incoming chairman Rep. Melvin L. Watt of North Carolina says no matter who occupies the White House or which party controls Congress, the caucus' mantra won't change: "No permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests." Those interests include health care, education, civil rights, employment and poverty, among other issues that Mr. Watt rightly contends have wide racial disparities. Sharing those interests, though, doesn't mean there is a monolithic "black community," as the Democratic Party and all-Democratic caucus have long assumed. [more]

"I'm going to ask for a series of meetings, for regular meetings with him as we have historically had the relationship with some presidents and thought that we were going to have that relationship with him," CBC Chairman Mel Watt says [more]