What next for Clinton

By Stephen Cunningham

PRESIDENT, diplomat or celebrity broadcaster Bill Clinton wants to be remembered as a peacemaker. But his career is by no means over - and if persistent rumours prove true, he might even become America's answer to David Frost.

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, a TV producer and Hillary Clinton's closest friend in Hollywood, has suggested the president could introduce a weekly�TV interview show, according to a well-informed internet gossip site.

'It would be an interview show in the great tradition of David Frost,' one source told The Drudge Report, which first broke the Monica Lewinsky affair.

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Back in 1988, Clinton said he would have liked to have had a media career if he had not chosen public service. He may well still have that on his mind.

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The Clintons - flush with Hillary's $8 million deal for her memoirs - are also searching for a home in Washington. She needs to be near to the Senate.

So what will her husband do while she's taking on her senatorial role and preparing to be the second President Clinton

Clinton is reported to be scouring midtown Manhattan for space to establish a private office, perhaps as headquarters of a foundation to conduct humanitarian work. It would be paid for by the government, which funds office space for all former US presidents. Ronald Reagan's rent in California is said to have been $275,000 a year; Gerald Ford's Michigan office cost a mere $80,000.

Most smart money is on Clinton becoming an international envoy. He is proud of his role in Northern Ireland and would certainly like to help keep the peace there.

One American commentator said Carter used the presidency as 'a stepping stone to what he really wanted to do in life'. Others refer to his last 20 years as 'the post-presidency'.

Carter calls it 'waging peace'. Through his Carter Center he has negotiated with Cuba's Fidel Castro and North Korea's dictator Kim Il Sung - both considered the worst danger men by the government.

Three years before the Oslo process, which brought Israel and the Palestinians to their first agreements, Carter met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and urged him to start negotiating.�Carter even offered to step into the Bush-Gore vote-counting crisis.

Most other ex-presidents have embarked on high-paying lecture tours, and Clinton could earn up to $200,000 a night for that. It doesn't seem his style, though, even if he needs the money. And he's going to have to take a lot of personal time to patch up any marital difficulties with Hillary.

At 54 he's the youngest ex-president in 90 years. He wants to keep up the good work and remove the stigma of the Lewinsky affair from his presidency.

One's thing for sure though - he won't be taking up a couple of job suggestions.

Bill will decline the offer made by many� to become a jazz bar saxophonist. He is also unlikely to take up the suggestion made in an internet contest to find him a job.

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The winner thought he should be adviser to a Cuban cigar company.� Unlikely. But what should be do Tell us what you think.