Less than two months after negotiations with former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs reportedly fell through, Facebook announced the hiring of a different presidential PR rep, Joe Lockhart.

Lockhart served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2000. He faced the White House press corps during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Elián González incident.

In a statement sent to Mashable, Facebook said:

“Joe’s arrival brings new skills and greater depth to our incredibly busy team. His experience building and running a press office at the White House gives him particular appreciation for the demands of a global 24-hour news cycle and the challenges of responding effectively to intense scrutiny.”

Lockhart starts his new job on July 15.

Facebook has faced a string of PR headaches in recent months over lingering privacy issues and, perhaps most notably to the public relations community, its failed attempt at a smear campaign against Google. PR firm Burson-Marsteller represented the social network during the fiasco.

In March, reports circulated that Gibbs was in the early stages of accepting a senior communications role at Facebook. Three weeks later, The Wall Street Journal reported that the job negotiations had fallen through.

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