Bloodless Coup

Pushing Robert C. Byrd Out of the Appropriations Chair?

I'm not sure I trust this story, especially since it names Patty Murray as his likely successor because for some undisclosed reason it would create "controversy" to name Tom Harkin, Barbara Mikulski or Herb Kohl to replace Byrd (all rank abover Murray on the committee), but The Politico is running a story that Democrats are considering easing the senior member of the US Senate out of the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee.