The Dems' "Memo Of Understanding"?

Not a "Gang of Fourteen," but more like "every Jackass for himself":

Senate Democrats do not have the votes to lower the sixty-vote threshold to cut off filibusters.

The lack of support among a handful of Senate Democratic incumbents is a major blow to the effort to change the upper chamber’s rules.

Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate are pushing for filibuster reform at the start of the new Congress next year.

Five Senate Democrats have said they will not support a lowering of the sixty-vote bar necessary to pass legislation.  Another four lawmakers say they are wary about such a change and would be hesitant to support it.

Actually, that would put the tally at 50-50, with V.P. Rogaine as the tie-breaking vote in favor.  So it can't really be said that Senate Donks don't have the votes, although they couldn't lose any more than that.

However, if Dirty Harry & co. tried to do away with the filibuster before the election, I couldn't guess how many additional seats they would lose to the public's rage at such self-serving banana republicanism.  The Republicans would capture the majority, guaranteed.  If they did it AFTER the election in the lame duck session in order to ram through all the garbage they haven't jammed down thus far - card check, cripple & tax, DISCLOSE, in addition to a VAT and whatever other goodies are on Big Labor's Christmas list - such an arrogant, outrageous, dangerous usurpation would get most or all of the passed items repealed next year and destroy their party in 2012, from top to bottom.

As for changing the rules at the start of the next Congress, Senate Dems could do so in theory if (1) they still have a majority and (2) whoever leads their caucus next year could hold it all together, a much more difficult task given how much smaller it will be.  But given that the House WILL be in GOP hands, it's difficult to see what getting rid of the filibuster would accomplish, since anything rammed through the upper chamber would die in the lower.  And as Ensign Ed notes, once the rules are set, those are the rules that the next Senate inherits.  If a razor-thin Donk majority in the 112th Congress muscles through a filibuster-buster, that's the rule that the GOP Senate that is more or less inevitable in the 113th will be bequeathed.

Yeah, the 'Pubbies would probably reinstate it in the interests of "bipartisan fairness" or some such drivel, but how eager are Dems next January going to be (assuming they are able) to take that chance when a filibuster capability may be the only power they have left in two years?