Patrick Leahy wants to replace the 90-year old wonder Robert Byrd..
I loved Byrd when he still had it going..but no one that old still has it going..I don't give a damn who they are. From The Hill's writeup:
Sen. Patrick Leahy is privately indicating interest in taking over the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee from an ailing Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) if necessary, four Democratic sources said Thursday.
The Vermont Democrat, third-in-line on the panel, strongly denied those claims. But all four sources said Leahy has sent several signals to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) about the move.
"It's been going on. There have been lots of whispers in Reid's ear," said one Democratic source.
Leahy "has tried to meet with Reid several times" about Byrd's chairmanship, according to another source.
The 90-year-old Byrd has been ailing for months, after having been hospitalized in February after a fall in his home and again in March for adverse reactions to medication. Both hospital stays were short, but senators this week raised the issue of his fitness as chairman during a Democratic leadership meeting.
