Dick Durbin to retire, 2014?

[Mr. Morden]

If this happens, Chuck Schumer is totally set to succeed Harry Reid someday, bar something extraordinary.

Isn't the conventional wisdom that this was already set to happen....that Schumer had outmaneuvered Durbin as Reid's inevitable successor within the caucus, and this is why Schumer was given an expanded leadership portfolio after the 2010 elections?

I assume that that's *why* Durbin might retire.  If he realizes that he's never going to be Democratic leader in the Senate, then why stick around?

[Mr. Morden]

Like I said, my understanding is that Schumer has basically outmaneuvered the competition and is likely to become the next Democratic leader in the Senate when Reid steps down from the job (which *might* even be as early as January 2013 if the GOP wins back the Senate and Reid doesn't want to go back to being Minority Leader).  So I don't think Durbin retiring really impacts that one way or the other.

[Mr. Morden]

There was talk even before the 2010 election that Reid might not want to serve the entirety of his next term as Democratic leader, since it's a rather thankless job.  And he's 72 years old.  He may well decide to serve out the rest of his time in the Senate as the chair or ranking Dem. on a powerful committee, rather than as party leader.