Another prominent Republican is criticizing the ongoing refusal of the GOP's frontrunners to attend minority debates.

Former Representative J.C. Watts, the most recent black Republican to serve in Congress, said the top four candidates are making a huge mistake in skipping Thursday's debate with Tavis Smiley — and he even speculated that they don't have any African-Americans as top staffers, who would tell them what a bad move this is.

Watts said their refusal to attend would leave black voters asking, "'Was it because of my skin color?' Now, maybe it wasn't, but African-Americans do say, 'It crossed my mind.'"

And Watts is not any sort of flaming liberal — during the 1990's, he famously described the Congressional Black Caucus as "race-hustling poverty pimps."