Bill Clinton: Senate Replacement For Hillary?

UPDATE: Former President Bill Clinton has no interest in replacing his wife in the U.S. Senate. His spokesman told CNN that any speculation that he would be interested is "completely false."

Last week, a Washington Post editorial urged New York Governor David Paterson to "send Bill Clinton to the Senate."

CNN looks at the possibility, which is not entirely without precedent:

If that happened, Clinton would become the third former president to go from the White House to Capitol Hill.

President John Quincy Adams lost his re-election bid in 1828. Two years later he returned to Washington after winning election as a congressman from his home state of Massachusetts. He served in the House of Representatives until his death in 1848.

President Andrew Johnson also served as a Senator from Tennessee in 1875, 7 years after the Senate acquitted him of impeachment charges. He died a few months after taking office.

Bill Clinton would bring gravitas to the job, and he obviously knows his way around Washington.

But some Democratic strategists who used to work for Bill Clinton don't think the former president would want to go from leader of the free world to being the junior senator from New York. Clinton's office deferred to Paterson's office when asked for a comment.

Read more about the competition for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

Comments

[mamala4]

Too bad...this would have been great!

[edwarvir]

Before they made so many nasty remarks
about President Obama I would have thought
this was a good idea, but not anymore ever.
she needs to keep her seat and they need to leave
President O alone

[britethere]

Bill will be busy quietly selling some SoS influence. Remember the pardons? Oh, and the Rodham boys and Roger Clinton will be in on the easy cash too no doubt.

[trudem2]

Special Envoy. Leave Bill uncommited so he can be sent to mediate hot spots as and when needed.

He could pick up where he left off in Palestine-Israel conflict.

[partyofone]

If Bill goes to the Senate, who will protect the interns?

[monyae]

THAT WOULD BE SOMETHIN

[kimleehan]

This does bring up a good point, with all these democrate congresspeople leaving congress to join the P.E. administration, whats the new congress going to look like. Is it going to be left leaning, right leaning or strait down the middle. These majority leaders diffenitly going to have their work cut out for them.

[concernvoter]

Bill need to be free, so he can run behind Hillary, because she's going to stay on the road

[chillyone]

Hopefully Hillary will keep him away from the interns...

[priusdriver]

anyone who actually believed this was even close to happening is either drunk or a CNN executive looking for another wave of Clinton related ratings.

[learnsomething]

Bill is a former president, and that is all he will be known for in politics. It is absurd for the media to keep trying to make Clinton news.

[davenav]

Well, his name HAS been floated, and when someone of his stature says they don't want a job like that -- it's news, whether you like it or not.

[pangurban]

I would love to see it happen just because it would really irritate Christopher Hitchens.

[davenav]

Didn't think of that. Yes, his apoplexy would be epic.

[learnsomething]

It won't happen. This is just the media attempt to keep making Clinton news.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Numero uno in el mundo... to #100 in the Senate under the leadership (cough) of Senator Reid.

Yup.

[davenav]

I love it when any article on the Clintons gets posted. I love imagining the veins popping out on the foreheads of Clinton-haters everywhere!

[DemNY]

Right. Like President Clinton is ever going to work as a senator now.

Okay.

[spartanmom]

No Way.

Schumer doesn't want someone who will outshine him.
Paterson wants someone he can work with and he has hinted that he would prefer someone from upstate. (Where they are going to find someone with a high enough profile outside the NYC-Albany corridor, I don't know but western NY is crying for the post)

JQA was ALL about public service but Bill seems to be more about himself