WASHINGTON�Despite being a small numerical minority in a minority legislative party where the majority vote rules, by most accounts the 38-member Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is approaching the dawn of the 21st Century in good political condition.

Celebrating the 29th annual observance of what it now calls its "Legislative Conference" Sept. 15-18, most analysts contacted by The Final Call put the CBC at the "head of the class."

Asked to give a school-like grade to the CBC�s 1999 performance: a senior White House staff member; a senior researcher at an independent think tank; a senior adviser to a member of Congress who is not a CBC member; and a former CBC staff member graded the group with: an A; an A-minus; a B-plus; and a C-minus.

"The CBC is most successful at raising issues," said a current staffer who works as a legislative assistant to a Congress member from the Midwest and who asked to remain anonymous.

In far too many instances, this staffer pointed out, since the 1994 Republican "revolution" in which the GOP won control of the House of Representatives for the first time in more than 40 years, "Republicans have succeeded in deadening important issues. They don�t want to deal with Black issues," the staff member said.

In fact, one of the first acts by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was to disband the various issue caucuses by taking away their Capitol Hill office space, and by prohibiting Congress members from allowing members of their legislative staffs to work together as a group on collective projects.

Then, by controlling the legislative agenda, the new Republican majority has threatened some important gains made by Blacks by "loosening our grip on issues, making them non-issues." Still, the staffer�who graded the CBC with a B-plus�said, the CBC has been effective in spite of those changes.

"In terms of the impact that they�ve had, compared to the past, since the Republicans controlled Congress, I would definitely give them maybe an A-minus or a B-plus," said Dr. David Bositis, senior researcher at Washington�s Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

"Listen, the past couple of years, I�ve told people that the CBC was ineffectual, so if I say that the last year was a B-plus or an A-minus, I really do think that they had a significant impact on American politics.

"I wouldn�t say that if you were just talking narrowly about legislation. I�m talking about overall. I think this has been, certainly the best year that the CBC has had since the Republicans took over Congress."

Legislatively, the CBC is in an admittedly difficult position. They are Democrats, and "what�s true for the Democrats is true for the Black Caucus," said Dr. Bositis. "They occasionally win some small fights," he said, but the Republicans are in control of the House.

"For years the CBC has offered progressive legislation. Some of the most progressive legislation of anybody on the Hill. We of course, have found ourselves working closer and closer with them on issues," said Ben Johnson, special assistant to President Bill Clinton and director of the president�s One America Initiative.

"So, we find ourselves in a very supportive position of their efforts, and they of ours, which is why the president and the vice president have attended the CBC Annual Legislative Conference every year they�ve been in office," Mr. Johnson said.

The biggest victory scored by the CBC this year, according to Dr. Bositis, came from its unflinching support of Mr. Clinton during the darkest hours of his impeachment crisis. "The first prominent group of elected officials who really stood up and defended (Mr. Clinton) was the Congressional Black Caucus," he said.

"It wasn�t some timid defense. They stood up and said, �over our dead bodies.� Now, they couldn�t keep Clinton from being impeached, but I think they went a long way towards bringing all the rest of the Democrats on board so it ended up being a �Republican impeachment.� Not a House impeachment," Dr. Bositis continued.

This political support paid off during the negotiations which led up to the 1998 budget agreement, according to Dr. Bositis. Grateful White House and cabinet officials rewarded supportive CBC members with money for projects in their districts.

The Clinton administration did not simply "payback" loyal Black Democrats with money, Mr. Johnson insisted. "There was a relationship with the CBC before any of this came up. Certainly the defense made the bond stronger, but the bond was never weak, it was always strong.

"The CBC played a large role in electing this administration. The president of course, has reciprocated by the number of appointments he�s made at the request of the CBC, by the number of minorities he�s appointed to positions of trust in the government."

There are now six�of 26 total�Black assistants to the president, including: Robert Nash, director of presidential personnel; Thurgood Marshall Jr., cabinet secretary; Minion Moore; political director; and Mark Lindsay, director of administration.

The CBC�s influential role administration needs to be continued after the 2000 elections, no matter who is elected president, Mr. Johnson said.

"One of the things that we�re hoping is that whoever gets the vote of the American people will see that this is the way to go, not the reverse," he said.

"This is the most successful administration in more than 50 years. Economically, it�s probably the most successful, and it�s the most diverse in the history of the country. It shows that quality and diversity go hand in hand and this administration has demonstrated that, and the CBC has worked hand in glove with us on a number of issues and we�re proud of that relationship."

The practice of compromise, of playing along to get along, is what disappoints many CBC observers. "I look at the issue of the Black farmers. The member that I worked for was in the middle of that. There is a lot of hesitancy among some of the members of the Caucus as a whole to get involved" in taking tough stands, according to a former CBC staff member who grades the CBC with a C-minus.

"There was (always) talk of private deals being cut by certain members. They have a lot of good ideas and proposals that come out under the name CBC, but in terms of there being follow-through and people actively championing whatever causes there are, I don�t see it. They don�t even react as a group. The CBC, this former staffer said, is unable to gel outside of a crisis and to plan and act proactively instead of reacting to a situation when it�s already too late. It just seems to be in a reactive mode. And when it reacts, it�s not very effective.

"I�d give them a C-minus. That�s pretty accurate," the former staff member said. "I guess it�s easy for me to say because I don�t hold a seat or an office, and only worked as a staffer, and on top of everything I�m impatient, and the legislative process is not a fast thing. It just seems, however, like obstacles were constantly being put in the way (of the CBC) by other people or (members) were putting obstacles in their own way.

"I think of the fire that came from the (1972) Gary (Black Political) Convention, and compare (the CBC) to that. It�s like ashes compared to the fire that was once there."

In similar circumstances when he has been criticized, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, often reminds his critics that he is a "public servant, not a perfect servant." CBC members should be judged by an even more compassionate standard, according to Dr. Bositis.

"The membership of the CBC are politicians," said Dr. Bositis. "They are not civil rights leaders. You elect politicians to do something for you. That oftentimes involves compromising. Most people don�t like to compromise, but the fact of the matter is that the world would be a very terrible place if no one ever compromised."

White House adviser Ben Johnson agrees. "I wouldn�t term (compromises by CBC Members) as a betrayal of the cause. What you have is �what�s passable.� There are bills that you could make picture perfect, but you still can�t get them through the Congress. So there has to be compromise to move the ball further along, and then move it further along the next time. The next time you get a chance to move it still further along.

"Unless we have a different Congress, we�re not going to be able to get everything we want, exactly like we want it. We feel the same as (the CBC) on a lot of these matters, but reality tells us that if you can�t get (legislation) through (Congress), you get what you can and then you work on what else needs to be done.