If there's one thing the GOP learned from its Cliven Bundy lovefest last year, it’s this: be careful whose bandwagon you jump on because they might actually say what they think.
Now GOP hopefuls are in lockstep with preserving "law and order" in the face of Oregon’s rogue rebellion, even if it is being staged by the very anti-government extremists Republicans so desperately want to court. Apparently, the idea of Cliven Bundy—father of the brothers who orchestrated the armed takeover of the wildlife refuge—weighing in on "one more thing I know about the Negro" is a touch beyond the pale for the GOP.
Marco Rubio: “Let me just say, first of all, you’ve got to follow the law,” the Florida senator and Republican presidential candidate said on Iowa radio station KBUR Monday morning. “You can’t be lawless."
Donald Trump: "You have to maintain law and order, no matter what," Trump told The Hill.
Jeb! Bush: "I think it’s wrong. I think it’s inappropriate and they should cease and desist."
But Jeb! being Jeb! and exceedingly desperate for every. single. last. vote. He added: "Having said that, the federal government ought to be much more differential to states and localities and shift power back to states and localities — including land."
And Ted Cruz, who's naturally praying for "everyone involved": "Every one of us has a constitutional right to protest, to speak our minds. But we don't have a constitutional right to use force and violence and to threaten force and violence on others. And so it is our hope that the protesters there will stand down peaceably, that there will not be a violent confrontation."
Bad news for the Bundys. Sorry boys, party's over.