Why it was always hard to be enthusiastic about Clinton (Bill and, to an extent, Hillary):

They had people like Lanny Davis in their entourage:

As the United States continued to push for President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast to step down, two former Clinton administration officials were trying to present Mr. Gbagbo, who has clung to power despite international condemnation, in a more sympathetic light.

Michael Espy, the former agriculture secretary who is now a lobbyist, has appeared on Ivorian television on behalf of Mr. Gbagbo’s government, while Lanny J. Davis, former chief counsel to President Clinton who was hired by Mr. Gbagbo’s government this month, worked the phones and described himself as a liaison of sorts to the tainted regime. (...)

By all international accounts, Mr. Gbagbo was defeated by Alassane Ouattara in the Nov. 28 runoff vote for president, but Mr. Gbagbo has disputed the election results. (...)

Mr. Davis, who helped defend President Clinton against impeachment, registered with the Justice Department earlier this month as an agent for Ivory Coast who would be paid $100,000 a month to “present the facts and the law as to why there is substantial documentary evidence that President Laurent Gbagbo is the duly elected president as a result of the Nov. 28 elections.” But he insisted in an interview on Wednesday that he viewed himself not as an advocate but as a “conveyor belt” to pass information about Mr. Gbagbo to the administration and the world.

posted by Quiddity at 12/23/2010 08:18:00 PM