There are signs that the party has warmed to the congressman, who has built a reputation as a personally impressive member of Congress, but it’s still very much a work in progress, for the following reason:

Despite his short time in public life, West has a long paper trail thanks to his frequent media appearances. And in those appearances and elsewhere, he’s said lots of things:

* He suggested that being gay is a choice akin to picking an ice cream flavor

* He compared the Democratic Party to Nazi Joseph Goebbels’s propaganda machine

* He said a Muslim member of Congress represented the “antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”

* He called his Florida colleague and Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz “vile” and “not a Lady” in a leaked personal e-mail (not exactly helpful for a party that is battling charges of a ‘war on women’)