Slight correction...

I made a mistake in the previous post of not making the distinction between 60 members of the US Senate who are Democrats or Democrat-friendly and the reality of all 60 of them will vote in unison along party line. By being the majority party in the US Senate, the Democrats have the right to appoint their members to chairmanship in various committees and sub-committees, a very powerful position that allows the party the control of the Senate agenda and the substance and extent of the legislative debate.

But when it comes to actual full Senate vote, the Democratic Senate majority whip will still have to keep all his troops in line and coerce or cajole them into voting unanimously. This is an extremely hard task to accomplish as it takes a delicate balancing act of equal measures of threat and reward. It's very unlikely that the Democratic party will muster ALL 60 votes every time an important issue comes up and it'll have to pick its battles carefully. Senators are generally highly egotistical people and like to maintain the occasional independent streaks. There will be times when they choose to strike out on their own and it will incumbent on the Democratic Senate leadership to decide when will that time be.

Okay, enough of the lesson in American Politics 101. It reminds me of the time when I taught "Introduction to American Government" class to a bunch of American high school students.