And of course, surprising no one, A&E has announced that the racist, anti-gay, misogynistic hillbilly who heads the Duck Dynasty show is not suspended any more.

Following a political and cultural backlash, the A&E cable network on Friday reversed its decision to suspend the patriarch of the hit series “Duck Dynasty” over inflammatory remarks about gay people.

He made many other inflammatory remarks, of course, including openly racist comments about the happy singing black people he saw in the Jim Crow south, but for some reason the media reports are just gliding right past all that.

A&E’s statement to the media reads: “As a global media content company, A+E Networks’ core values are centered around creativity, inclusion and mutual respect. We believe it is a privilege for our brands to be invited into people’s home and we operate with a strong sense of integrity and deep commitment to these principals.”

Highly ironic misspeling of “principles” aside, it’s not a shock that A&E has no real principles other than cash; I expected them to cave in on Duck Dynasty sooner. They may even have contrived the whole thing when they saw the protests against Robertson’s hateful comments in GQ, in a bid to enrage the easily-enraged right wing base and get even more of them to watch this stupid show. And prominent Republicans like Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin jumped out there early and let the base know it was time to yell and scream.

But you gotta hand it to the right wing media and the GOP — they pitched an absolutely gigantic fit over the suspension. They’re really excellent at this. And they are the audience for Duck Dynasty, no doubt about that. Well played, A&E.

And speaking of Ted Cruz:

Back on. pic.twitter.com/qWepexc5t4

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 27, 2013

And speaking of Bobby Jindal:

The left is going to have to get accustomed to the fact that it does not have a monopoly on free speech

— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) December 27, 2013