Surprise. Surprise. Cliven Bundy is a racist. Who knew?

Certainly not the Republican politicians and Fox News pundits frantically trying to reel in their words of support after the pot-bellied Nevada rancher's recent pronouncements on “the Negro." Bundy, who knows a thing or two about welfare from decades of feeding his cattle at the public trough, boned up on African-American culture driving past a public housing project in north Vegas. “And one more thing I know about the Negro: they abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton.”

You’d think they’d get it after years of nominating Neanderthals to carry their banner. But Republicans still get all indignant when Todd (“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down”) Akin turns out to be a misogynist. Or Christine (teaching evolution is big government “imposing beliefs on local schools”) O’Donnell an idiot. Or Michele (“It isn’t that some gay will get some rights. It’s that everyone else in our state will lose rights”) Bachmann a homophobe.

Now American-flag-waving patriot Cliven (“I don’t recognize the American government as even existing”) Bundy wonders, “are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy?”

Hmmm, Cliven, good question. In your case, I’m going with government subsidy.

But as all those Germans said in the 1930s, “We had no idea.”