It shouldn't be a surprise that John LeBoutillier would pop up on Fox & Friends to spout utterly discredited conspiracy theories about President Obama's birth -- after all, he's a conspiracy-monger from way back.

LeBoutillier was one of the more rabid Clinton-haters in the 1990s, hurling all manner of smears and embracing conspiracies, such as those surrounding the death of Vince Foster. For instance, in a February 2001 Newsmax column, LeBoutillier claimed there were “stories for years that Vince Foster -- shortly before his still-mysterious and still-unsolved death -- had just visited Switzerland. Could it be he was depositing cash for the Clintons and then had to be silenced?”

In that same column, he wrote that “The busty Denise Rich's 100 White House visits last year while Hillary was campaigning all over New York suggest sex” was a factor in President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich. He also wrote that “For years there have been rumors of the Clintons having an account -- named Chelsea -- in the Cayman Islands, which is a refuge for drug money,” suggesting that that account was where the supposed “cash ... used to secure the Marc Rich and other pardons” was deposited. He went on to insist that “Any proper investigation of the Clintons and the pardons needs to treat the Clintons just as an investigation would treat a John Gotti or an international drug lord.”

There's much more LeBoutillier insanity on the Clintons:

• He wrote that “A source who knows 'someone' in the Secret Service has relayed to me” that when President Clinton tore a tendon in his knee, he did so “in the midst of a wild sex party. Prostitutes were there and he fell while carrying one 'nude hooker on his shoulders.'” He conceded that the story is “admittedly hearsay.”

• He touted a flyer depicting Bill Clinton as a “sexual predator.”

• He claimed that the Clinton administration's appointment of Webster Hubbell to the Justice Department “was a surefire sign that Hillary knew that she planned many acts of malfeasance. She just wanted to make certain that she could escape the legal ramifications of her perfidy.”

• He has called the Clintons “grifters,” claiming “they have each scammed millions from their gullible, liberal -- and hopelessly naïve -- publishers.”

LeBoutillier hates the Clintons so much, he attempted to create a “Counter Clinton Library.” As Media Matters noted, the so-called library was to be located “within walking distance of the future Clinton Presidential Center in downtown Little Rock” and would be “filled with rooms such as the Hillary Hall of Shame, Pardons for Dollars and National Insecurity Hall.” The final exhibit was to have been a recreation of the alleged trashing of the White House “to show, in the most vivid manner as possible, just how much damage the Clintons did to 'the people's house,” LeBoutillier said (never mind that claims of vandalism were mostly debunked). It would also include “a Broadcast Center where Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and other radio and TV talk show hosts will be invited to broadcast their shows.” LeBoutillier even appeared on The Daily Show in 2004 to talk about it; during the interview he noted that “Some people believe that the Clintons have had up to 70 people whacked over the years.”

Needless to say, that didn't quite pan out. LeBoutillier's backers bailed out in 2005, with one supporter, Rep. Bob Barr, saying that “Nearly every dime raised has gone to professional fundraisers and lawyers.” LeBoutillier later insisted that “The Counter Clinton Library is alive and well and about to launch a major new direct mail campaign this September to 400,000 prospective donors.” We haven't heard a peep about it since.

LeBoutilllier even founded the Stop Hillary PAC, with the goal of doing the same thing to her that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did to John Kerry in 2004. That fizzled too.

With Clinton-hating no longer lucrative, a turn toward Obama-hating was inevitable. He has painted Obama as “an Ivy League snob, a left-wing elitist who thinks he is better than rural people,” and he has falsely claimed that Obama “slurred the Cambridge police as 'stupid'” in the Henry Louis Gates case, further asserting that Obama has a “scofflaw attitude” because he racked up several parking tickets. LeBoutillier has even wrestled with his conscience over whether to root for a continued poor economy to ensure Obama would lose re-election in 2012.

LeBoutillier's new book, which he was promoting on Fox & Friends, is just an extension of that. He's has been working in the realm of fiction for so long that th eonly real surprise that it's taken so long for him to write something labeled as fiction up front.

P.S. His co-author is Ed Klein, best known for his own fictional ventures in a bio of Hillary Clinton.