If you thought the wingnuts had reached their nadir with the comparisons of Obama to Hitler, it's important to remember: when it comes to the right, things can always get worse.

So this week we could find CNN's Glenn Beck, in an interview with religious crackpot John Hagee, wondering aloud if Obama is the Antichrist:

BECK: Let me ask you, and this is -- 'cause I got -- I get so much email on this, and I think a lot of people do, and I've only got a couple of seconds. Then they say "Glenn, you in the media, you've got to wake up. Barack Obama's making people faint and cry and everything else. And he's drawing people in and -- "

There are people -- and they said this about Bill Clinton -- that actually believe he might be the Antichrist. Odds that Barack Obama is the Antichrist?

Note that Beck somehow manages to not just overlook Hagee's many outrageous remarks about other faiths, but also lets Hagee misrepresent the reasons that Catholic activists have called him a bigot: "I have criticized the Catholic Church for its past anti-Semitism. But I have also been very critical of the Protestants and their anti-Semitism, especially as led by Martin Luther," he says. "Standing against anti-Semitism does not make me an anti-Catholic."

In reality, Hagee has done much more than just criticize Catholic anti-Semitism. In his latest book, he writes: "The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself." He also has variously called the church "The Great Whore," an "apostate church," a "false cult system" and ... you guessed it ... "the "anti-Christ."

I guess that's why he told Beck that Obama isn't the anti-Christ. He's already got some other entity in mind.

Not that an ever-incisive observer like Glenn Beck could be bothered to mention this.

Of course, no one really takes Beck very seriously, except for the CNN poobahs who've given him a national megaphone to spew his verbal smegma. But you know how these things work.

In couple of weeks, it'll be on the tongues of the Village Idiots. Look for Tim Russert to grill Obama at some point about whether or not he has 666 tatooed on his ass.

After all, we were treated this week to the vapid maunderings of Maureen Dowd channeling Steve Sailer by depicting the Obama candidacy as being propelled largely by white guilt. And of course, the "Adolph Obama" theme first could be found out in wingnut territory before it came bubbling up in the mainsteam. Thanks to Beck, we've now skipped the fringe step and are broadcasting nutcase ideas to a mainstream national cable TV audience.

Next up: Obama is an alien!