Harry Reid has no testicles

Michael Muksaey was sworn in today as the next AG after winning his confirmation vote by a slim margin of 53-40. While 4 senators who publicly opposed his nomination, who are also running for president, skipped the vote, quite a few others publicly opposed it but then voted for it anyway.
A few months back, the 'conventional wisdom' was you needed 60 votes to get anything done in the senate, as some republican senators liked to say. The newspapers would say 60 votes were required for passage. Why, I wonder, were 60 votes required? If so, why was Thursday's vote passed with only 53 votes? Gee whiz this government stuff is so complicated I don't think I'll ever understand it.