The Other Senator Clinton?
If Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the presidency, some top Democrats would like to see her husband, former President Bill Clinton, appointed to serve out Hillary’s unexpired Senate term.
“As a senator, he’d be a knockout,” said Harold Ickes, who was once a top White House aide to Bill Clinton and now gives behind-the-scenes advice to Hillary. “He knows issues, he loves public policy and he’s a good politician.”
Some Democrats and political analysts say Bill Clinton would thrive in the world’s greatest deliberative body, much like Lyndon Johnson did before he became president.
“President Clinton would excel in the Senate,” said Paul Begala, who helped Bill Clinton get elected and served in the White House as a top aide.
“Why not?” Begala added. “He excelled as attorney general and governor of Arkansas, he excelled as president and he’s been a model of the modern Senate spouse.”
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, agreed.
“Clinton is a natural for the Senate,” Sabato said. “He loves to talk and schmooze. He could be a great vote-organizer. Majority Leader Clinton?”
Such a scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility now that the governor’s mansion in New York is occupied by a Democrat, Eliot Spitzer, who succeeded Republican Gov. George Pataki last month. If Hillary Clinton wins the White House, Spitzer would likely appoint a fellow Democrat to take over her Senate seat.
So far, speculation about potential successors has focused on New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father once held the same Senate seat.
But Spitzer could just as easily appoint Bill Clinton, who, under New York law, would fill his wife’s Senate seat through 2010. A special election would then be held, and the winner would serve the final two years of her term, which expires in 2012.
Although Ickes would love to see Bill Clinton in the Senate, he considers the scenario a long shot.
“I think there’d be a real call on [Spitzer] to appoint a black senator,” Ickes said. “I think there’d be a real call on him to appoint a Hispanic senator.”
Bill Clinton, who was once dubbed America’s “first black president” by author Toni Morrison, would not be the first former president to serve in Congress.
No matter how many times I read that ‘first black president’ line, it still brings out a chuckle. What a moronic statement.
This whole thing is pretty laughable, too: just look who Bill Sammon interviewed for his article: Ickes? Begala? That’s like seeking out Barney on Bush’s popularity right after mealtime…
Clintons, Bushes, Kennedys, bah! The term limits I would vote for would be those that limit the number of years a particular family could hold office.
What an idiotic article. Bill Clinton would never accept any other elected office, having already occupied the highest in the land.
And the speculation is pointing towards a Cuomo and a Kennedy? Surely New York has more than two families interested in politics.
Think about who else Spitzer could appoint. I’ll take a skirt-chaser with no principles over a left-winger with bad ones any day of the week.
Nice research for this article… John Q. Adams serve in the House after he left the presidency. But we should revere the superior reporting of the MSM right?