California Senator Dianne Feinstein is in line to become the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The opening was created Friday with the announcement that Senator Robert Byrd, the longest-serving senator in history, is stepping down from his post as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
That makes way for a chairmanship shuffle in the Senate Democratic Caucus that will end up with Feinstein, a Democrat, relinquishing her gavel of the Senate Rules Committee in favor of the far more powerful Intelligence post, according to a former Hill aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were ongoing.
That could decrease the possibility of Feinstein running for California governor in 2010, something she's been considering.
