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Quick! Somebody alert the RedState Army Strike Force! Some serious Sarah Palin dissage is happening on Aisles 8, 9, and 12!!!

Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show last night featured a couple of Republican women -- A.B. Stoddard of The Hill, and "pro family" advocate Rebecca Hagelin -- discussing Sarah Palin's political future. Stoddard makes it clear that, inside the Beltway, Palin's star is rapidly dimming:

O'Reilly: There's no doubt that Governor Palin wants to run for president in 2012. I mean, there's just no doubt. She does. Does she have a legitimate chance:

Stoddard: I don't think so. I think she is a real political star, and I think that, would that it was just sincerity and passions and principle that got you there, she might have a chance. I think if you coupled her competence during the presidential campaign in 2008, the kind of competence that she showed, with the signals she has sent since that election these last couple of months in Alaska, I don't see her becoming a viable candidate in 2012. She's not endearing herself to the apparatus of the national Republican Party, as someone like Mitt Romney is, doing the hard work behind the scenes to help other candidates, members of Congress, et cetera, people in statehouses across the country.

Back in Alaska, I think she's also working hard to imperil her chances of getting reelected there next year in 2010, making Democrats and Republicans in the state Legislature mad.

O'Reilly: By not accepting the stimulus money from D.C. Right? That's the big issue up there right now.

Stoddard: And not being there during the -- the Legislature closes up its business today, and in these last hours she went for a speaking engagement.

Of course, Hagelin sturdily denied that any of this was a problem. But these rumblings are becoming widespread:

"She's just not ready for prime time," said a party strategist who has worked for former President Bush. "I mean, she's starting to look like she's having trouble being governor of Alaska." At issue is her weak debut, hampered by the mishandling of her by Sen. John McCain's campaign, and subsequent family issues such as the most recent tiff with Levi Johnston, the father of her first grandchild and ex-fiancé of her daughter Bristol.

Since running for vice president with McCain, Palin has made efforts to be a national figure, starting a political action committee and speaking at national events in Washington. But she has also blown other chances, backed out of speech commitments, and allowed herself to be caught in a fight between state and national aides who have different roles for her in mind. While some Republican officials say that there is time for her to recover, many are already looking to others to carry the GOP flag, such as Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich, in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Mind you, her right-wing populism will continue to make her a major player in the GOP, especially now that the populists have taken over the conservative movement.

Indeed, Palin may become the candidate of choice for the populists -- who are nothing if not bellicose in their ostensible hatred for the Beltway Republicans -- in the coming months, considering that their main favorite, Ron Paul, is getting a tad long in the tooth. Which will mean they'll be openly pitted against the establishment GOP.

Palin vs. Romney. Pop some popcorn.

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Now that the Right has had its little Tea Tantrum, will we hear from them again? Michelle Malkin and all the progenitors of the Tantrums assured us that they were "here to stay," but it's hard to figure out exactly what they're going to do next.

Will the Tea Tantrums just fade like a three-year-old's when you just let her throw it and ignore her? One can't help suspect.

Still, watching yesterday's daylong Tea Party Propagandafest on Fox News -- through Neil Cavuto and Glenn Beck and finally finishing with Sean Hannity, one thing was perfectly clear: this was right-wing populism in action -- indeed, in the process of taking the reins of the leaderless conservative movement.

There was a lot of talk throughout the day about how "this wasn't about Republicans and Democrats," this was about "the people vs. politicians," "right and wrong," "socialism vs. capitalism," etc. etc. There was also a lot of talk about those parasites who feed off the producers. There were the "Atlas Is Shrugging" and "Ayn Rand Was Right" signs at all the rallies.

It's all populism -- and despite the token Democrats they trotted out from time to time, it was distinctly right-wing populism.

And they are clearly leading the conservative movement now. Indeed, Fox's broadcast itself was a clear signal of the movement's embrace of its populist wing.

A giveaway moment came during Hannity's evening broadcast from Atlanta, when he brought in a live feed from the Rick and Bubba Tea Tantrum in Alabama:

Hannity: And I'm going to tell you one other thing: When did we ever get to a point in America where, we're nearly at the point where fifty percent of Americans don't pay anything in taxes! Nothing!

[Crowd boos]

Rick: The numbers out are just astounding that, that, how much that the very top taxpayers actually pay. I feel like these taxpayers are disenfranchised. I want them to have a share of the burden just like they have a share of the vote.

That's right -- it's the wealthy top percentage of the country that needs a tax break. After all, they are the one Obama's targeting, right? So at least they're being upfront about just who "the taxpayers" are whose interests they're out marching to defend.

That brings to mind David Horsey's cartoon in this morning's Online P-I:

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Barack Obama wants to burn Joe Q. Public alive -- and all because he wants to fix the immigration mess.

That was pretty much what Glenn Beck told his Fox News audience yesterday. Actually, it was more blatant than that:

Beck: And President Obama apparently feeling like -- ah, I'm pretty much done, not a lot more to do, you know? I got all those things done. You know what? Why don't I work on immigration reform? Later this year he hopes to create a path for the estimated 12 million illegal aliens here in America to become legal. But yet, we haven't fixed the border and shut the water off! What a sweet, sensitive guy he really is.

Here's one thing I think the media is missing. I don't know about you, but when I saw that story last night, I did this: Wha-? You've gotta be kidding me! Let me, let me just ask you a question. Maybe I'm alone, but I think it would just be faster if he just shot me in the head! You know what I mean? How much more -- how much more can he disenfranchise all of us?

We have Bill Schultz here, he's from Red Eye. And I'm just going to demonstrate at least how I feel, all right? I feel, when I read this story last night, I don't know about you -- let's say Bill is the average American here, and I'm President Obama. This is the way I feel. I feel like President Obama is just saying, 'You know what, I've got that $3.5 trillion budget here ...'

He then proceeds to douse Schultz with a clear liquid from a gas can (he promises it's actually water) and then hold up a lit match in his general vicinity.

And then he wonders why people think he's promoting a violent and paranoid right-wing worldview that is bereft of anything approaching reality.

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Wait! Glenn Beck isn't a populist! He says. Today.

Beck brought on his best Wingnut Super Friends, Michelle Malkin and Jonah Goldberg, to whinge on Beck's Fox News show about the horrible torch-bearing mob that has been unleashed in the direction of those poor AIG executives.

Mind you, it only seems peripherally to have come to their attention that the leading pitchfork-bearers are Republicans. The guy who wanted the execs to commit suppuku? Chuck Grassley, a Republican. Indeed, most of the violent populist rhetoric directed at AIG seems to be coming from the right.

And of course, it's obvious that this is all just a pose, a bit of demagogic opportunism for Beck and Friends. What makes it obvious? That the Friends are Malkin and Goldberg.

The ironies of Michelle Malkin in particular decrying others for targeting individuals and holding them up to public ridicule, exposing them to threats in the process, are so rich you almost have to savor it. As you watch her in action in this clip, recall that this is the woman who:

1. Sent her flying-monkey readers after a pair of student protesters in California.
2. Indulged in a long and phony "investigation" into the supposed "nonexistence" of an Iraqi police captain named Jamil Hussein who was reporting news she didn't approve of -- in the process endangering Hussein's life.
3. Harrassed a 12-year-old boy and his family for having the audacity to publicly advocate a liberal policy proposal.
4. More recently, she pulled a similar stunt on a poor black woman who had the audacity to ask a liberal question of President Obama.

Indeed, we're wondering when she's just going to start up her own radio station and call it Radio Rmalkin.

Then there's Jonah Goldberg, author of a book whose entire thesis is that liberals are innately totalitarian fascists who inevitably want to enslave us all. He's also previously written that Joe McCarthy was right.

Beck's Super Friends are in fact the people Most Likely to Lead A Right-Wing Lynch Mob in the wingnutosphere. Obviously, they're just put out that this particular mob isn't one they assembled.

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You knew Jonah Goldberg had to be somewhere on the set the other day when Glenn Beck opened his Fox program with this:

If you believe this country is great, but progressive fascists are trying to destroy it, this is your wake-up call!

Before explaining exactly what this means, he offers a bit of emotional instability he'd indulged earlier that day: "This morning I kind of lost my mind on Fox and Friends." And he runs the clip, a shoutfest with Steve Doocy:

Doocy: But Glenn, the foundation of our country is our financial services industry. If that goes kaput, we are all screwed.

Beck: No, no. The backbone of our country is not our financial institutions.

Doocy: Yes it is!

Beck: It is not! It is the American people! I do not believe in the government, I do not believe in the banks! I believe in the people! Let the people fix the problem!

Dang, Beck did a nice Huey Long imitation there, minus the twang. He's already made clear that he's a right-wing populist, and now he's indulging it at will. (For what it's worth, the ascendance of the financial-services sector in the American economy, largely at the expense of the manufacturing sector, is in fact one of the problems Obama needs to fix. But I don't think that's what Beck is on about here; he's just posturing.)

But all this was just an intro to Beck's paranoia about the potential nationalizing of some of the nation's largest banks -- because it all means socialism. Which, evidently, means liberal fascism. Or something.

In any event, putting a patina on this kind of incoherence is what Jonah Goldberg is always handy for. Sure enough.

Beck: When I said, I opened up the show, and I know people were like, 'Oh my gosh, progressive fascism, liberal fascism, what are you talking about?' Blah blah blah blah blah ... It is really what George Carlin was talking about -- that fascism will come to America with a happy face. Is there any way that this ends well in nationalization?

Goldberg: Well, the good news is is that the market selloff yesterday, which was a direct referendum on what was coming out of Washington, scared the bejeezus out of most of Washington today, and you're now seeing the congressional Democrats, Steny Hoyer, people from the White House, Ben Bernanke today saying, 'Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Who said anything about nationalization?' Well, they did.

Beck is a fan of Liberal Fascism. I am not. Indeed, whenever I watch right-wing populists like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin operate, I'm reminded that nearly every far-right organization in America is right-wing populist.

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It's no wonder that Fox's newest conserva-star addition to its Angry White Men lineup, Glenn Beck, has such an emotional affinity for Sarah Palin. Because like Palin, Beck is not just a conservative; he's actually a good old-fashioned right-wing populist.

For those who follow such phenomena, Beck made it explicit Thursday on his Fox News show when he launched into a segment seemingly devoted to the thesis that the whole problem with the economy lies not with capitalism, but boils down to the fact that we rely on a central banking system:

Beck: I don't believe we're the infection here. Look around the world. I got together with the Heritage Foundation and looked at all of the -- where is this crisis hitting? It's hitting capitalist, socialist, communist, totalitarian governments, all of them, and everything in between.

At some point -- if you're the doctor again in the emergency room -- and you really want to get all these people healthy, you gotta rule out -- OK, well, it's not capitalism. OK, what is it? You need to stop to ask the question that a doctor would ask in that situation: 'OK, everybody, where did you eat? What have you had to eat?' All of these countries all have that in common. They've all eaten at the same restaurant -- the restaurant of Central Banking.

It is a system that no one is accountable to. No one. The brilliant geniuses that are supposed to be protecting us -- that's why central banks are around -- 'We'll stop it, we'll make sure there's no recession, there's no depression, we'll just keep these bubbles from happening.' They never at one point -- if we were Patient Zero -- at one point in no country did they say -- 'Hey, what -- what -- don't follow the United States. Don't do that.' Never? They've had their hands in all of the food and that's what's making us sick. Will anyone look at the Central Banking system?

Hmmm. It's kind of hard to decipher Beck's inchoate jumble, but we'll try. He seems to think people are blaming capitalism itself -- but what I think has taken far more of the blame has been laissez-faire capitalism, especially as practiced by movement conservatives, who never saw a deregulation scheme they didn't love. Rather than cope with the mountain of evidence supporting this reality, right-wingers like Beck flee to the comfort of reliable old conspiracist anomie.

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