EW YORK - Now that Hillary Clinton has been elected as New York's new US senator, how about this for a still more dazzling follow-up - Bill Clinton as the next mayor of New York City?
A rumor has been floating around for a few weeks that President Clinton, once his term expires, might take a shot at running in the city's November 2001 mayoral election.
Yesterday, the idea took on added conversational value, if not actual currency, when it appeared as the main item in Neal Travis's political gossip column in the New York Post.
A White House spokesman, Jake Siewert, asked about the rumor at his daily press conference, replied, ''He already has the second-toughest job in America, so why would he want the first?''
Hillary Clinton, appearing on ABC-TV's ''Good Morning America'' to promote her new book about the White House, laughed off the notion. ''That's not going to happen,'' she said. ''My husband is looking forward to a change of pace and a different kind of life.''
Nevertheless, the idea of both Clintons serving New York is irresistibly exciting for many people here.
Even Peter Vallone, speaker of the City Council, who has announced his own intentions of running for mayor, said yesterday, ''They would be New York's ultimate power couple'' - then added, ''I hope he runs for mayor of Boston instead.''
If the president really did run for mayor, said Richard Emery, a Manhattan lawyer who is active in city politics, ''I don't think there's much doubt he would win.''
A top aide to one of the Democratic hopefuls, who asked not to be identified, agreed: ''He wins in a heartbeat. New York City loves him.''
The underlying fact is that a city law, passed by referendum in 1993, limits all locally elected officials to two terms of office. This means Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, now nearing the end of his second term, cannot run again next November. And it means many of the other top municipal politicians - also facing term limits - are scrambling to take his place.
The leading Democratic contenders - Vallone, public advocate Mark Green, and city comptroller Alan Hevesi - are not exactly considered live wires.
There are no prominent Republicans in this city, though media mogul Michael Bloomberg is publicly contemplating a run on that party's ticket. Amid this morass, Bill Clinton might emerge as a bright and shining knight to Democrats.
Former mayor Ed Koch had a warning for him yesterday. ''Being president is easy compared to being mayor,'' he said with a laugh. ''The president's got an army between him and the public. As mayor, you're totally exposed to the public's contempt.''
An adviser to Green put the question more bluntly: ''Once you've been president, do you want to go out and fix potholes every day?''
All this, of course, is probably fantasy, despite the Post columnist's citing one of his ''more prescient political sources'' as saying that the prospect of his running is ''quite serious.''
Giuliani, asked about the possibility yesterday, dismissed it as just an item in a column, nothing to take seriously.
Then again, Hillary Clinton's run for the Senate began in a similar manner. In November 1998, just after the gossip mill began churning over the possibilities, and eight months before she actually started her campaign, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote, ''I have found nothing to substantiate the rumor that Hillary Rodham Clinton is interested in running for Mr. Moynihan's seat. But the idea of a Senate race between Mrs. Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani is such a splendid one that it must be kept alive at all costs.''
