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.
True, sometimes a Senate Majority leader steps down, and keeps serving in the Senate. Robert Byrd served over 20 more years.
