Roll Call (subscription only) points out that there's at least one piece of reality behind the Myth of 60:
Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ (R-Ga.) runoff re-election win on Tuesday helped Senate Republicans assure control of the 41 seats they need to mount a filibuster against the Democratic majority. That means Democrats — even with as many as 59 seats — will be unable to force through an organizing resolution next year that gives them a commanding majority on Senate panels, Democratic aides acknowledged.
That, it seems, means committee ratios will increase by one seat (to a total of two) from when the majority was just 51, even though it's now 58, and could go to 59 if Al Franken finally topples Norm Coleman in Minnesota. Yes, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in the full body would seem to argue in favor of allowing a three seat majority on the committees.
But the irony here is that the lack of a 60 vote majority is preventing Democrats from forcing through the organizing resolution they want, and yet not long ago, Evan Bayh was on TV telling the world that it was perfectly safe to hand the Homeland Security gavel to Joe Lieberman, because if he got out of line, he could be stripped of that chairmanship "at any time."
I'd still like to know exactly how Senator Bayh thinks Democrats will pass a superseding organizing resolution (which is what it would take) to remove Lieberman from the chair if he goes bonkers and starts voting with the other side, given the fact that Republicans apparently feel no compunction about threatening to filibuster an initial organizing resolution with fair committee ratios in it.