Reply #15: Black caucus' relations with Bush cool down

[dzika]

12:11 PM CST on Saturday, January 29, 2005

Black caucus' relations with Bush cool down

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News



WASHINGTON – This was no "candid" or "frank" discussion. Rather, the euphemisms of choice – from the White House and black Democratic lawmakers who waited four years for a second audience with President Bush – were "cordial" and "constructive."
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Roughly 11 percent of the black electorate went for Mr. Bush last fall – up from 9 percent in 2000, the lowest GOP share since 1964. Some GOP strategists hope to capitalize on his inroads, however modest, and collect as much as a quarter of black votes in next year's midterm elections – a goal at which many Democrats scoff.
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Dallas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson chaired the black caucus then. Weeks earlier, she led a walkout to protest the certification of Mr. Bush's electoral votes, citing "overwhelming evidence" that he'd lost Florida and the national popular vote. "We will ensure that there is no peace in the Congress until he truly reaches across party lines," she said at the time.
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Some analysts say Mr. Bush is wooing caucus members for support of his plan to create private accounts for Social Security. Republican opposition means Mr. Bush will need some Democratic votes, and advocates argue that black men in particular, who have a shorter life expectancy as a group, would benefit more than most groups from the ability to pass retirement savings to heirs.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston said she'll give Mr. Bush the benefit of the doubt for now.

"After four years in the desert," she said, "we were able to come in and have the opportunity to lay out an agenda."


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