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> Python 3.1.2 -- 32 bit gives sin(2^60) = -0.7391806966492228
Interesting. I get 
>>> sin(2.**60)
-0.83064921763725463
On both OS X 10.6.3 (64-bit build) and OS X 10.5.something (32-bit build). But this is all down to the platform math library, of course.
I agree it's not ideal, but it's not really in Python's power to fix this, without adding a huge extra maintenance burden (from adding the necessary high-precision arithmetic to Python itself) or another external dependency.
You could always try to come up with a patch that adds a configure option for linking Python's math library into MPFR instead of the system math library. (crlibm would also work, and would be faster; it doesn't seem to be so well maintained these days though; Pari/GP isn't such a great option since its floating-point model isn't so compatible with IEEE 754).