Jimmy Carter flopped as a president and has flopped even worse as an ex-president. His raging ego concealed behind a veil of piety, he has thrust himself onto the world stage repeatedly and to ill effect.

This includes going behind the back of President George H.W. Bush as he was building his international coalition to remove Saddam from Kuwait, writing to heads of state imploring them to give sanctions more time to work.

Then the Baptist buttinski meddled in President Clinton’s negotiations with North Korea, tying Clinton’s hands and screwing things up. The man is a menace.

Now he wants to add a mantle of respectability.

Melding statesmanship and a large slug of audacity, the former South African president Nelson Mandela and a clutch of world-famous figures plan to announce today a private alliance to launch diplomatic assaults on the globe’s most intractable problems.

The alliance, to be unveiled today during events marking Mandela’s 89th birthday, is to be called “The Elders.” Among others, it includes the retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu; Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president; the retired U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, and Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland.

Many, including Mandela, have been early and harsh critics of President Bush and American foreign policy, particularly toward Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group’s members and backers insisted however, that they are guided neither by ideology nor by geopolitical bent.

Mandela is venerated by millions. But let’s not forget two things about him: one, he has kept silent as tyrant Robert Mugabe has ruined the once-prosperous nation of Zimbabwe and two, he and his successor Mbeki cost millions of lives in South Africa because of their AIDS policies.

At a time when the virus was not widespread in South Africa, the two denied the link between HIV and AIDS and actively prevented steps that could have prevented so much death and misery.

While Mandela and Carter may dub themselves “elders” it does not follow that all elders need command our automatic respect.