I promptly got an error. So Doug rebooted the ClearCase server which didn't help and I rebooted my machine which didn't help. At this point, it was time to yell for a better grade of help.
So I pinged the ClearCase experts on the east and west coasts. They looked over my installation and can't figure out how anything ever worked here. Many things did, but the mechanism appears to be a mystery.
The solution: reinstall ClearCase. But it turns out that the ClearCase client install image on our local server is pretty old for one reason or another compared to what they're using out in Santa Clara.
So we are now copying the ClearCase installer from Santa Clara to my local machine. Slowly. Very slowly. In fact, it says that it still has 158 minutes remaining some five hours into the process, but it's been saying a variety of different random times all along, so you may as well just disregard that number.
The only good thing about this is that if we'd tried to run the setup program remotely, we'd be waiting even longer than we are to copy the files, given the soda straw that apparently exists between here and Santa Clara. They just rearranged the Santa Clara network connection earlier this week which was supposed to increase our throughput from here to there.
I'm thinking not so much.