They have nothing at all else in common, but David Sedaris and Newt Gingrich are alike in their fondness for clever in the British sense (the quality for which Americans would use smart or intelligent). I noted Sedaris’s use of it last week and Gingrich’s some months back. Now Newt has hauled it again, in his comments yesterday in suspending his presidential campaign. He said his wife, Calista, had commented to him, “approximately 219 times, give or take three, that ‘moon colony’ was probably not my most clever comment in this campaign.”
notoneoffbritishisms.com 
Love this blog, but you are way off in thinking it isn’t common for “clever” to be used as a synonym smart/intelligent in the U.S.
In fact, having lived in the U.S. for all my 46 years, this is the primary definition as I have experienced it my entire life.
As an ex-Brit, we would also probably say ‘most clever’ but ‘cleverest’
Not qualified to comment on Ae ‘clever’ meaning the same as Ee, but you might like to know David Sedaris is very popular now on Radio 4. We ‘get’ him. Currently he talks for half an hour on Sunday evening after ‘The Archers’, which is 7.15 local time.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01n0vhg/Meet_David_Sedaris_Series_3_Attaboy_and_In_the_Waiting_Room/