When I met Ken Buck at the Independence Institute's ATF event Saturday, I asked what he thought about Jane Norton injecting gender into the race with a new commercial asking whether he was "man enough" to be a senator. Buck responded by telling me that Norton had recently said the difference between the two candidates was that she "wears high heels."

Later, at lunch, Independence Institute head Jon Caldara introduced the candidates in the crowd and called Buck to the mike for a few minutes. When someone in the crowd asked why he should vote for Buck, he responded with this: "Because I do not wear high heels."

He followed up by noting that he wears cowboy boots "with Weld County bullshit, not D.C. bullshit."

But as the clip of his "high heel" quip went viral yesterday (to watch it, click to this Ken Buck post on the People's Press Collective site), the bullshit -- whatever its origins -- was getting pretty deep.

• Calhoun: Wake-Up Call