"Flatter than a Crepe Suzette"

"Wirt's day in the sun came back in 1934, when the obscure Midwestern blowhard placed himself at the center of a political maelstrom by 'discovering' a plot by members of Franklin Roosevelt's Brain Trust to launch a Bolshevik takeover of the United States.
"That Wirt's yarn was transparently absurd didn't keep it from being taken seriously on the front pages of newspapers coast to coast, including the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. He gave speeches, wrote a book and went to Washington to give personal testimony at a standing-room-only congressional hearing.
"If that reminds you of the overly solicitous treatment given by the press, cable news programs and Republican office holders to purveyors of such lurid claptrap as the Obama birth certificate story or the fantasy of healthcare 'death panels,' now you know why it pays to study history."

Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times recalls the sudden rise and fall of William A. Wirt in 1934.