Alan Keyes to Address "Tea Party" as Right-Wing Crack-up Deepens

Dave Weigel reports that a "chorus of groans sounded at the meeting" when it was announced that Alan Keyes -- a gift of Right-wing lunacy that never stops giving -- will speak at the April 15 "Tea Party" in DC.

As if the "Tea Party" movement (motto: 'don't tea-bag me, bro!') weren't silly enough.

Begun by an ill-informed rant by a second-tier broadcaster, most of those attending the Tea Parties will be protesting a budget that cuts their own taxes (Obama's proposal would drop taxes for 95 percent of Americans). Michelle Malkin says, “Fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture, and that’s what we’re seeing here,” which is pretty funny considering that Obama requested $3.5 trillion and included money for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush last year requested $2.9 trillion -- which didn't include funds for the Troubled Assets Relief Program -- and then added $200 billion in "emergency" supplemental requests for the Pentagon (among others).

The Obama budget shuffles money around more than it adds to the total -- much of the remaining difference is growth in non-discretionary spending. And then there's the stimulus plan, which, among DC's many costly approaches to the econopocalypse is the one most economists agree will have the greatest impact on the economy of "Main Street."

All of which is pretty difficult to discuss with members of a conservative movement that has gone off the deep end, and is now heatedly debating whether Obama is a Communist or a Fascist. As the San Francisco Chronicle notes today: