CHARLESTON, S.C. - With Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama trying to figure out whether it would work for her to play teammate, the question keeps coming up of what to do with Bill Clinton. No White House occupant would want a restless former president hanging around.

Here's an easy answer. Give Bill Clinton a real job with real power, a challenging position that would be engaging, in part because it would be new.

Let me explain.

Once the campaigns agree on an Obama-Clinton ticket, Obama calls Gov. David Paterson of New York, lays out the situation and gets an agreement that if an Obama-Clinton ticket wins, the governor appoints the former president to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, where he would serve until 2010. He could then run in a special election for the two remaining years of the term.

As for precedent, recall that John Quincy Adams moved from the executive to the legislative branch of the federal government, serving in Congress after his time in the White House.

Upon being sworn in, Bill Clinton would immediately be the most prominent member of Congress. He would carry the prestige of being a former two-term president -- and he would be married to the vice president, who also happens to preside over the Senate.

Bill Clinton's lack of legislative experience would be a virtue, a new challenge for him. It would also bring his political life full circle: His first campaign, which he lost, was for Congress in 1974.

Of course, there would be plenty of incentive for Paterson, too. Think what his state would have after the inaugural -- a former New York senator in the White House, and a former president in the Senate.

(Jack Bass is the co-author of "Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond" and "The Transformation of Southern Politics.")