PATRICK McHENRY LESS SQUARE THAN EVERYONE WHO EVER MET HIM THINKS?

Is Wonkette getting ready to drop the big bomb on Patrick McNutcase (R-NC)?

He made his reputation-- as an insane person and a far right fanatic-- by dressing up like Abe Lincoln and waving a sign in the vague vicinity of President Clinton saying "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?" He then started a deranged website called notHillary.com which led to him winning a Republican primary in a low-info North Carolina congressional district... by 86 votes. When the Republican House leadership couldn't find anyone willing to defend their child predator congressman, Mark Foley, McNutcase was happy to step up... and blame Foley on Clinton and Pelosi. Now he's an unsavory hatchetman for Howdy Doody (R-FL).

Anyway, Wonkette is an Inside the Beltway gossip blog that staffers in offices there read for titillation. Sometimes, though, they point in the direction of a serious story and I sense that that is what Wonkette did today. It's hard to imagine that the nerdy McHenry is a fan of avant garde indie rock-- let alone of anti-racist musicians-- but a Wonketter spotted him at the 930 Club last night seeing a TV On the Radio concert (and dressed like an ex-Young Repug-- which, of course, is what he is: "McHenry is the kind of young person whom other young people can't stand because he comes across as if he's been prepping his whole life to be 40"). Maybe he was a Joy Division fan.

Although most DC observers see McNutcase as a low-level loser with no future whatsoever, his own staffers think he could be a future Dick Cheney (which in their world is a good thing): "You know, I see him as someone who could someday be vice president," McHenry's political consultant Dee Stewart tells me. "Not president, because you've got to be more bipartisan for that, but a vice president, someone who could become a conservative legend."

That may be nipped in the bud very soon. Keep your eyes and ears open.