Al Franken was officially declared the winner of the November 2008 Minnesota Senate race on Tuesday by 312 votes, after that state's supreme court unanimously rejected Norm Coleman's lawsuit.The win means that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will now have the votes of 60 people caucusing with the Democrats, although this includes two independents (Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont) as well as Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
Since it takes 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a majority vote in the 100-member Senate, many Democrats are celebrating Franken's win of the Minnesota seat after a long 8 months. However, the Democrats have had 59 votes since January and still they have not been able to pass truly progressive legislation.
It can't hurt the attempt to pass LGBT legislation, but I think the significance of the "60 vote barrier" has been overstated.
The legislation going through the Congress is complicated. Hopefully all the Democrats won't just join together to pass "change." If change isn't carefully regulated it could be detrimental to the US. (I'm talking in more financial issues) A friend on MSNBC claimed Al Franken would have to tune down his inner comic to be accepted on the floor. http://www.newsy.com/videos/franken_funnyman_or_senator But, his charisma may be more beneficial than people are predicting.
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