Conservative hero Cliven Bundy: 'I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro ...'

"I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times they are not forgotten ..."

"I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times they are not forgotten ..."

What a surprise: It turns out that Cliven Bundy, the deadbeat cattle rancher who has become a hero to conservative politicians and pundits, is nothing but—well, besides that whole deadbeat cattle rancher thing—a racist:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro ... because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Coming up next: Watching conservatives awkwardly distance themselves from the remarks themselves while still embracing their hero's "principles."

5:36 AM PT: For more discussion, see this diary from SamLoomis.