Point of information: 60 Senate seats does not guarantee anything

[featherman]

It should be noted that too much is being made about the 60 Senate seat majority being important. It is not. Cloture votes and possible filibuster threats are not guaranteed by having a 60-40 nominal majority.

Party discipline is far from absolute on many issues. The votes that may be needed for cloture on a specific piece of legislation still involves rounding up the votes. In some cases, more conservative Dems may bolt to the other side and stymie further progress on that piece of legislation. In other cases, some moderate Republicans may join with Dems to shut down debate and proceed to a vote.

There is nothing magical about having 60 nominal Dems/Inds in your caucus.

A 51 seat majority is the real power allowing the majority to organize the Senate, give majority representation in committee, name the Chairs of the committees, and set the Senate agenda. We have that in spades.

What is important is that we no longer need a "veto proof" majority for anything... and that's nice.

[tosh]

1. While this is certainly true, it is still a beutiful thought to rid ourselves

of some of the butt-wipes like Saxby Chambliss.

[DB1]

2. Your last line was most impt. Plus no more signing statements.

[jobycom]

3. Pretty much true. One minor caveat, but it's minor.

The president and the leaders of the Senate and House have a lot of power over their party. They can threaten their own party members with everything from loss of campaign support to loss of committee power. So, having 60 in the Senate would give Obama and Reid (or whomever succeeds him) a little more pull on cloture votes.

But basically you are exactly right. Both parties will cross over at times, depending on the legislation, and sometimes the threats from leaders aren't as scary as the opinion of the voters, or the threats of economic backers. There are many alliances in Congress, not just party. Party is strongest, but it isn't absolute.

On many issues, we could pick up a moderate Repub or two if we needed it. On issues where we couldn't, we'd probably not have the support of conservative Dems, either.

Anyway, just saying, you're dead on, and thanks for the analysis. 60 isn't as magical a number as it's being portrayed to be. The media needed some drama to talk about on election eve, so that was it.