Report: Reid to ease Byrd out of post

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is moving to ease 90-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., out of a top Senate leadership position, sources say.

Byrd is chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee and his failing health, along with Reid's agenda of firming up his own position ahead of his 2010 re-election bid, are prompting him to work on a plan to ease Byrd into semi-retirement, the Washington publication Politico quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Politico's sources say that under the emerging plan, Byrd -- the longest-serving senator in U.S. history -- would become chairman emeritus of the committee and would likely retain coveted office space in the U.S. Capitol near the Senate floor. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, would replace Byrd as Appropriations Committee chairman under the plan, the publication says.

Reid is motivated because, should Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, win next week's presidential election, the majority leader's own re-election bid would become a prime target for Republicans in 2010 and he would need to resolve chairmanship issues to concentrate on his own race, sources said.