shows. Cokie Roberts of CNN said flatly the other night that every time Hillary seemed to be bouncing back, her husband dragged her down and was this Bill trying to safeguard his legacy as the only person named Clinton ever to occupy the White House.

The recently disclosed $108m in income earned by the couple - mostly Bill - since they quit the White House hasn't particularly helped Hillary tie down the blue-collar vote in Pennsylvania or boost her national ratings. Nor has the $800,000 paid to Bill Clinton by Colombia-based Gold Service International to promote the US-Colombia trade deal that Hillary has been denouncing.

US labour unions bitterly point out that Clinton (along with two of her own top staffers, Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson) has been lobbying for Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, while the latter has consolidated his regime's record as the most dangerous in the world for labour organisers.

In the six years since Uribe took office, more than 400 union activists have been killed. In 2008, almost one

unionist a week has been assassinated.

Even as Hillary was calling for President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing because of repression in Tibet, it emerged in the past few days that Bill had roosted in 2005 on the payroll of the Chinese Web firm, Alibaba Inc, which recently carried a government-issued internet "wanted notice" urging the arrest of Tibetan protesters.

Alibaba made a contribution to Clinton's foundation in return for a speech. Clinton claimed the money went to his AIDS-fighting operation. "They help me save lives in China," he declared fervently, but it seems Alibaba's money went into a different account.

One of Bill's assets 20 years ago is that he looked so boyish - so unlike a fleshy southern pol, marinated in dirty money. It's not the way he seems now. He looks like a sleazeball. His low character has caught up with him yet again.