Clinton Worries For Public Officials

Bill Clinton discusses threats, court, 2010: WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton says angry anti-government rhetoric has led to a worrisome increase in threats against the president and other elected officials. Clinton says people should be careful that the words they use to criticize officials don't demonize them. The two-term Democratic president tells ABC News' "This Week" that he worries about threats against President Barack Obama and the Congress. But he says he also is troubled by "careless language," citing a leaked memo from a New Jersey teachers union that contained a joke containing a suggestion that Republican Gov. Chris Christie should die. Clinton first addressed the issue in a speech Friday in which he warned of a slippery slope from caustic rhetoric against the government to violence like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Clinton says someone who hasn't been a judge should be considered for the Supreme Court. But scratch the idea of the ex-president or his wife as a justice. Clinton suggested that President Barack Obama follow a model that Clinton used when he tried unsuccessfully to persuade then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and then-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to agree to be nominated to the high court. Justice John Paul Stevens' recent decision to retire hands Obama a second chance to shape the court. Clinton, who has not been a judge, said that at 63, told ABC's "This Week" that he's too old to be considered, much as he might enjoy serving on the Supreme Court. He said his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, also might have been interested in past years, but not now. Bill Clinton, who also had two court vacancies during his first years in office, ended up nominating two federal appeals court judges, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Ginsburg was 60 and Breyer was in his early 50s. The former president urged Obama to pick someone around 50 years old. Obama's Democratic predecessor in the White House says Cuomo and Mitchell, who had been a judge before serving in the Senate, would have made good justices, but both turned him down. He said he hopes Obama takes a look at someone who hasn't been a judge. Among those reported to be under consideration, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, 49, has never been a judge. Others who fit that description are Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, 52, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, 51 and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, 53. Last year, Obama chose another federal appellate judge, Sonia Sotomayor. Former President Bill Clinton has seen congressional elections where Republicans dominate. But he says this year is no 1994. He expects Republicans will make some election gains this fall. But he says Democrats will not lose the House or the Senate, as they did in 1994. He tells ABC that the economics bill passed in his first term helped a lot, but voters didn't realize its benefits at first. Clinton says the same thing is happening with the President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. He says many are expecting bad things from the bill and have yet to see the benefits. Clinton says people today realize the need to work together to solve problems.