Both men spoke of the graciousness of the other, of their devotion to Minnesota and the need to put their eight-month election dispute behind them. But the topic on which they said almost the same thing was Franken’s status as the 60th Democratic vote in the U.S. Senate. Both Coleman and Franken were dismissive of the significance of the number 60 — despite its vaunted quality of rendering Democratic legislation filibuster-proof — and for almost the same stated reasons. (Their unspoken reasons may differ.) 

Coleman, after his concession:

Sixty is a magic number, but not everyone always votes in lockstep. …I think a lot of folks are putting a lot into this 60 number. When it comes to the big issues, there are a lot of Democrats that don’t always vote with the Democrat party line, and there are some Republicans that don’t always vote with the Republican party line. 

Franken, after his victory speech:

Sixty is a magic number, but it isn’t. Because we know that we have senators who — Republicans who are going to vote with the Democrats, with a majority of Democrats on certain votes, and Democrats that are going to vote with majority Republicans on others. So it’s not quite a magic number as some people may say.