MALKIN ISN'T EVEN TRYING TO CONCEAL HER '60S ENVY

Michelle Malkin on the various anti-stimulus "tea parties," none of which seems to draw more than 600 people:

I joked to a Christian Science Monitor reporter covering the events that fiscal responsibility is the new counterculture....

There is, as the old '60s song goes, something happening here. And what it is, is very clear: A grass-roots revolt against the culture of entitlement.

Michelle, at least try to pretend you want this out of principle, not because you developed powerful pangs of jealousy after renting Hair from Netflix.

By the way, I'm still waiting for one of these tea parties to top a few hundred in attendance. Malkin's reports always cite cold or rain as an excuse for small crowds wherever it's, um, cold or rainy, but the crowds in warmer, sunnier climes don't seem to be any bigger.

... Oh, but a tech blog of the L.A. Times says that's OK because the "tea parties" are "massively-shared" -- a euphemism for "very well attended if you count people sitting on their asses while watching on a screen." I'm reminded -- in a kicky, modern, Web 2.0 kinda way -- of Father Guido Sarducci's souvenir button in response to Pope John Paul's 1979 U.S. tour. Remember? The real buttons sold at the Pope's appearances read, "I Got a Peek at the Pope," but Father Guido's button said, "I Saw the Pope on TV."

And speaking of Saturday Night Live, I see from the L.A. Times report that one of the speakers at L.A.'s "tea party" was Victoria Jackson. Good choice, "party" planners! She, of course, is the astute political observer who wrote this last fall on her Web site:

I don't want a political label, but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ....

You see, what bothers me most, besides that he is a Communist, and a whitey- hater, (although he is half white), is that he is a LIAR. He pretends to be a Christian and he incriminates himself everytime he speaks about Christianity. To lie about being a believer in Christ is very dangerous. Lightning could strike him at any minute!

Reading that again gives me a renewed appreciation for the subtle, nuanced, Burkean ruminations of Joe the Plumber. Yeah, kids, if you're building a movement, you definitely want to put folks like Victoria Jackson front and center, for the insta-credibilty it confers.