Lots of clients lie to their attorneys and as long as the lie fits the template the attorney 'wants' to believe, they will ignore the contrary evidence up the point of a judges rebuke. Its either the sign of a bad attorney or the sign of another baby boomer Camelot-wannabe who just wanted to believe that Bush really did want to attack CIA agents because he really was truly evil just like Howard Dean said he was. Being a trial lawyer is actually a developed skill and the biggest skill is evaluating which cases you are almost certain to win and which ones are going to be messy and potentially losers. This lawyer isn't a trial lawyer. (i'm stopping before being a trial lawyer sounds like a compliment)
"this was going to be a long, long politically motivated effort which could be ALL on the firms dime with no real chance of reward"
I think you have it nailed.
No, no! Keep going. It'll make my day to have someone say something nice about a trial lawyer. ;)