President-elect to resign from Senate

Washinton: President-elect Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he will resign his Senate seat effective Sunday, leaving Illinois Govenor Rod Blagojevich to choose from among a host of willing successors for the final two years of the Democrat's term.

Obama's decision makes it certain he will be absent as Congress undertakes a new round of action on the financial crisis, including proposed relief packages for automakers and struggling middle-class homeowners, during a lame-duck session next week.

Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said Reid was prepared for Obama's resignation, having learned last week that the president-elect would not participate in the upcoming session.

But Manley said Reid's office had no sense of Vice President-elect Joe Biden's plans for departing from the Senate. The Delaware Democrat was reelected on the same day the Obama-Biden ticket prevailed, and he has held out the possibility of keeping his seat until as late as early January as succession issues are sorted out.

Biden's son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, is considered a top contender for appointment to the seat but is serving a tour in Iraq with his National Guard unit.

Obama's resignation could tip the balance of power in the Senate, if only briefly during the lame-duck session, depending on the actions of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

Lieberman, an independent, is a member of the Democratic caucus, but his colleagues remain furious about his relentless campaigning for Senator John McCain and other Republican candidates this fall.

Democrats will enjoy a dramatically expanded majority when the new Congress is seated in January, and many in the party are eager to strip Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

A vote on Lieberman's fate is expected next week, and if he is ousted as chairman, Senate sources said, Lieberman could cross the aisle to caucus with the GOP.