From within, the  past chairs of the CBC, particularly Mel Watts and Albert Wynn refused to rein in the more reactionary, corporate, DLC, pro-Repub types, or Blue Dogs.  These guys are running the show.  The old CBC is now splintered and slowly dying off.

It's unlikely that current chair Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick is going to reverse that slide.

Who are they?  Let me give you a hint.  Guys like

Albert Wynn, MD
William "Cold Cash" Jefferson, LA
Sanford Bishop, GA
Artur Davis, AL
Kendrick Meek, FL (known as the Foundation Chair, as opposed to Dean John Conyers who is one of the last two founding members left--Charlie Rangel is the other.)

...and before his defeat in TN, Harold Ford, now chairman of the DLC.  He works closely with Wynn.

Check this excerpt from a 2005 edition of The Black Commentator after the Bankruptcy Bill was passed.

CBC Chairman Mel Watt (NC), a progressive lawmaker, admitted as much to  Lizz Brown, talk show host on St. Louis radio station WGNU.  Watt urged Brown not to read too much into the fact that ten of 41 CBC members voted for the Republican bankruptcy bill, since the Caucus as a whole "did not take a position" on the legislation. But of course, the Caucus could not take a position on bankruptcy, if unanimity or near-unanimity were required. Therefore the CBC, as an institution, sat out a "bright line" vote on an issue of monumental consequence to their core constituency: the predatory lender-besieged Black community.

The CBC also disappeared as a political entity in the fight over repeal of the estate tax, a Republican measure that benefits less than one-half of one percent of Blacks, weakens the nation's capacity to maintain a social safety net for all the rest of us, and reinforces wealth privilege. Eight Caucus members sided with the rich, and against their constituents - with not a hint of sanction from the CBC, which "did not take a position" on the matter. (See BC, "Black Caucus Losing Cohesion," April 21, 2005.)

These new CBC are nothing less than appeasers.

An untypical Negro

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