Harry Reid has already begun shutting down the Senate before the GOP even introduces a motion for cloture to confirm the nomination of Priscilla Owen, according to a statement by Bill Frist:

“What a difference a day makes. Less than 24 hours after he complained the Senate is ignoring issues important to Americans, Democrat Leader Harry Reid today threatened progress on an energy bill, a jobs bill, disaster relief, and a closed intelligence meeting.

“To close down the committees over the judges issue is not only counterproductive, it could hurt Americans looking for work or suffering at the gas pumps.

“Despite any differences over the judges, the American people want their government to continue working on issues important to them. They want the Senate to do its job.

“Despite his suggestions to the contrary, Senator Reid’s actions speak volumes. It would appear the Democrats’ threat to shut down the Senate has already begun.”

True to his word, Reid has started using all available procedural tactics to stage a temper tantrum, but now it's just at the mere introduction of nominees for debate. What happened to Robert Byrd's plaintive pleas for freedom of speech? Harry Reid apparently has declared free speech in the Senate to be "dead, dead, dead!" ahead of its time.

Frist stands ready to employ the Byrd Option while Reid goes for the Gingrich Option. History shows how well each of them wound up working before, and nothing's changed in the time since to think that the end results will differ. If Reid wants to block intelligence committees from meeting during wartime, let that be his legacy to American history.

UPDATE: Kevin McCullough reminds us that Harry Reid once told us that reports that he would shut down the Senate were "absolutely not true". Just to drive the point home, he's set the Democrats' cacaphony to the Fleetwood Mac song, "Tell Me Lies". You have to listen to this ...

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