Conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote last month, "Many GOP congressmen complain that Watts seldom appears on Sunday television talk shows. They charge that he is disengaged from policy formation and rarely speaks at weekly leadership meetings. While Watts earlier this year was a hot prospect for vice president in 2000, colleagues now wonder whether he is even up to his present job."

But most of Watts' problems stem from turf and strategy battles, not disagreements over the Republican agenda itself. DeLay, for example, assumed some duties previously performed by the conference chairman who is normally the publicity agent for the 222-member majority.

Shapard says the riff between the two is a thing of the past. "When one member begins to pull the group in one direction and won't play well with others, you have a tendency to get angry. You haven't seen any more reports about him and Tom DeLay," Shapard said, suggesting Watts put a stop to DeLay's encroachments.

Watts' most intensely personal and public battles have been waged with other African-Americans. Watts complained to Vice President Al Gore after his presidential campaign manager Donna Brazile, who also is black, suggested the congressman was Republican window dressing.

"Al Gore and Bill Clinton have worked hard for the last seven years to improve the lives of African-Americans and Hispanics," she told Bloomberg.com. "On the other hand, the Republicans bring out Colin Powell and J.C. Watts because they have no program, no policy. They play that game because they have no other game." The Congressional Black Caucus chided Watts last year for the appearance before a white supremacist organization of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi and Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia. "We urge you to insure the Republican Party, its leaders and all of its members clearly and publicly distance themselves from the (Council of Conservative Citizens) and any other white supremacist, anti-semitic or hate groups," CBC members wrote to Watts.

When House Democrats sponsored a resolution condemning the CCC, Watts drafted a competing but vague resolution condemning all hate groups. Although both measures failed, his resolution was perceived as providing political cover for conservative Republicans.

Watts once described the Rev. Jesse Jackson and former Washington Mayor Marion Barry as "race-hustling poverty pimps" who try to keep poor blacks tethered to the Democratic Party. And in 1995 he wrote an essay for the Republican Party's in-house magazine entitled "Lincoln's Legacy" in which he predicted by 2002 there would be more black Republicans serving in Congress than white Democrats. He urged the party to reach out to minorities.

"I ask you, who is more of a sellout -- the blacks who fight for independence or the snake oil salesmen who strike deals with the white liberals to keep minorities dependent as long as they can benefit from that dependence?" he wrote.

Watts believes that the conservatives' emphasis on family values and strong work ethic appeals to African-Americans who vote Democratic mainly out of tradition. If Republicans can break that tradition, he argues, they will become the permanent majority party in the nation.

He experienced his own conversion after hearing Don Nickles, now Oklahoma's senator, talk about the party's pro-family philosophy in 1980. He also sees himself as proof that a hand up, not a handout, produces success.

A scrappy kid, Julius Caesar Watts Jr. grew up in a poor black neighborhood literally on the other side of the tracks in tiny Eufaula, Okla., and became the quarterback for the University of Oklahoma Sooners. Too small for the National Football League, Watts had a successful football career in Canada. "He was a football star and in Oklahoma that's a huge deal. At that point in time, OU was really one of the few things Oklahomans had to brag about. It was a big part of our identity and he was a superstar. And, he's a wonderful speaker. He had enormous appeal as a candidate," said Sharon Hargrove Caldwell, a partner at Cole Hargrove Snodgrass & Associates, which has run all of Watts' political campaigns. Caldwell said the consulting firm is also awaiting Watts' decision.

In 1990, he ran as a Republican for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state regulatory agency over oil and gas, and became the first African-American elected to statewide office there. In 1993, he became an ordained Baptist minister and developed a following as a motivational speaker.

In 1994, he ran for the vacant 4th District seat and became the first black Republican since Reconstruction to represent a state south of the Mason-Dixon line. His district is overwhelmingly white but conservative. In 1998, he received 62 percent of the vote.

Since his first election, Watts has been groomed and cultivated by national party officials. He spoke at the 1992 Republican nominating convention in Houston and made a prime-time address at the 1996 convention.

Indeed, Watts reportedly harbors dreams of being vice president or a Cabinet officer in a George W. Bush administration. "He would have to be on the short list for vice president," said Shapard. The congressman could run the risk of being compared to Dan Quayle, who was plucked from the Senate by George Bush the elder. Like Quayle, Watts is also young, affable and good-looking but not considered a heavy thinker.

And Watts omits many items from his by-the-bootstraps biography. As a teenager, he fathered a daughter who was raised by relatives. He failed to acknowledge her existence until the Tulsa World tracked her down. Even more questionable is the free-enterprise advocate's business acumen. His property management business has been troubled by debts and liens. The Daily Oklahoma reported in 1996 that his company failed to pay property taxes for two years.

Still, Watts is a popular figure on the religious right talk circuit. And, his earnings potential, now limited by congressional rules, could be huge and could provide the financial security that has eluded him.

"He came to Congress to be a public servant and he wants to go home sometime," Shapard said. "He's not up here to build a political empire."