The travails of New York Governor David Paterson have opened up a new potential career path for Clinton, Newsweek says quoting unidentified well-informed Democratic Party insiders.

They want Clinton, a New York Senator, to consider the option if she concludes after the April 22 Pennsylvania primary that she cannot overtake Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination.

Hillary Clinton, while fully committed to continuing her Presidential campaign, was said to be open to discussing the idea, while her husband and former President Bill Clinton rejected it out of hand, the magazine says in its upcoming issue.

With former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani now reported by the New York Post to be weighing a race for Governor, voters could see a Clinton-Giuliani matchup.

Peterson, a former state senator and lieutenant Governor, succeeded Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was forced to resign earlier this month when he was caught in a prostitution ring.

A legally blind African-American with plenty of friends in political circles, Paterson has admitted to drug use when he was young and to having had several extra-marital affairs, including one with a New York state employee.