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Like it or not, it took Republicans four election cycles to retake the Senate majority after losing it in 2006. Once the majorities are attained, seniority still rules in both houses. Furthermore, a minority of 41 senators can bring the Senate to its legislative knees with filibusters, and the normal divisions of the country usually do not award the majority party 60-vote control. Democrats had 60 votes for 60 days during 2009 and 2010; Republicans haven’t been able to break a filibuster by their own votes alone since the Andrew Johnson administration.
If that’s not enough, there is always the president. To override a presidential veto requires two-thirds majorities in both houses. Of the 1,497 vetoes in U.S. history, Congress has managed to override just 110. The country hasn’t elected a veto-proof Congress since 1964, and it has never raised up a veto-proof Congress to oppose an elected president of the other party....

This stuff is crack cocaine to us political geeks.