The left has suffered through a lot of bad news over the last few weeks.

Here’s something that should give progressives something to cheer…

The Democratic Caucus is discussing ways of altering or getting around the 60 votes requirement to overcome a filibuster.

I spoke with Senator Bob Casey (D, PA) earlier today. He told me that the Democratic caucus was “working through” how to get around the 60-vote threshold for moving legislation. He said that it was the “subject of a lot of discussion at the end of the year” and “will be in the future”. He went on to say that there may be alternatives to rounding up the required 67 votes to change the rules and the caucus is exploring that. One possible justification for getting creative? According to the Senator, “Sometimes the other party approaches it a different way.”

Reading between the lines, it seems clear that the Caucus was frustrated last year, caught between a rock and a hard place. Senators Landrieu, Nelson and Lincoln face extraordinarily restive and boisterous constituencies egged on by right wing talk radio and astroturfed pr campaigns. Voting for cloture on the health care bill without first obtaining substantial fig-leafs would have been sure electoral suicide. Even after extracting concessions from the rest of the caucus, their re-elections prospects are precarious, at best.

The more liberal members of the caucus are surely aware of this dynamic; they understand the challenges their colleagues face. Finding a means to circumvent the 60-vote requirement may be the sword that cuts the Gordian Knot. Democratic Senators from conservative states could still vote their constituency’s values, without frustrating the will of the entire caucus. Solving this problem is especially important for the more ideologically diverse Democratic caucus that amassed huge electoral gains in the nationalized 2006 and 2008 electoral cycles.