obama biden pelosi looking at wilsonSeveral explanations have surfaced for U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst during the presidential address to Congress Wednesday, including policy-induced ejaculation and an anger-compensation scheme you might call pay-for-bray. Here’s another, spookier theory: Wilson was caught in a Barack Obama-Bob Dylan heckling continuum.

As Wilson was first being fingered as the heckler, lapsed Minnesotan Alex Pareene dug into his rap sheet: “According to nonpartisan sources @CongJoeWilson is the guy who shouted ‘Judas’ at Dylan.”

Pareene was conjuring up the 1966 incident at a concert in Manchester, England, at which a disgruntled folk devotee heckled Dylan with a Biblical reference. “I don’t believe you,” Dylan responded. “You’re a liar.”

It’s a short jump from Dylan’s “You’re a liar” to Joe Wilson’s “You lie!”

(If only Obama had answered Wilson by shouting “Judas!” … that would have been bringing it all back home.)

Heckling victims Dylan and Obama, meanwhile, are members of a mutual admiration society:

Interviewer: What else did you find compelling about [Obama]?

Dylan: Well, mainly his take on things. His writing style hits you on more than one level. It makes you feel and think at the same time and that is hard to do. …

For his part, Obama revealed to the Associated Press that the original Dylan-goes-electric tune is what’s on his iPod:

Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is “Maggie’s Farm.” It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric.