GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  Much of the in-the-tank-for-Barack media has ignored them, but two African-American men were elected to Congress on Tuesday...as Republicans.  They will be the only black Republicans in Congress.

Now, the question is, how will they relate to the solidly Dem Congressional Black Caucus?  From The Politico:

Allen West is coming to Washington with a message for the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus: He wants in.

West told POLITICO he’d “absolutely” be interested in joining the CBC. “That has been a monolithic voice in the body politic for far too long. There is a growing conservative black voice in this country,” West said, that needs to be represented in Washington.

West, of Florida, and Tim Scott of South Carolina will be the first two black Republicans to serve in Congress since J.C. Watts, who refused to join the CBC, and the first black GOP members from the Deep South since Reconstruction, but the two have different ideas about whether they should join the CBC, which hasn’t had a Republican member since Connecticut Rep. Gary Franks, who lost his seat in 1996.

“I haven’t really decided. I’m probably leaning against it at this point,” said Scott, whose 89-year-old grandfather was with him Tuesday night when he won a seat in South Carolina’s 1st District. “My experience has been the whole notion of one nation — so I really shy away things that create some kind of boundaries. ... It highlights the divisions I’ve been pushing forward to erase.”

COMMENT:  I want to be there when Lt. Col. Allen West, US Army (ret.) marches up to the Congressional Black Caucus and knocks on that schoolhouse door.  Will they admit him?  I suspect they will, simply to avoid the embarrassment of turning him down.  But then they'll ignore him.

November 6, 2010