The black GOP contingent in the House just got totaled; Allen West lost a squeaker for is Florida seat last month and Tim Scott just got a promotion to the Senate. He's the first black conservative to be in the Senate and only the fourth black since Reconstruction; someone with more of an interest in US political history might make the case that one or more of those black Reconstruction senators was conservative, but the three other post-Voting Rights Act black senators were liberals (Carol Moseley-Braun, a very RINOey Edward Brooke [How RINOey?-Paul Tsongas ran to his right] and the current president).
Both West and Scott are Tea Party faves, but Scott has a bit more of a pragmatic streak, both in tone and in voting record; Scott will vote with the establishment at times when there is an establishment-TP split on a vote. However, fans of Jim DeMint should rest easy that a kindred spirit is taking his place.
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