By Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff

A quarrelsome Senate descended to a new level of discord Thursday evening as Majority Leader Harry Reid moved to curb a Republican tactic to force votes on issues the minority considers politically advantageous.

Reid, D-Nev., employed a variation of the so-called nuclear option during debate on a China currency measure (S 1619), establishing by a simple majority vote a precedent that effectively changes a procedural rule.

Outraged Republicans cried foul, accusing Reid of trampling minority prerogatives. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., went so far as to accuse Reid of “fundamentally turning the Senate into the House.”

Republicans were trying to force Democrats to cast symbolic votes on a variety of topics including President Obama’s original job creation proposal. The Senate voted Thursday morning to limit debate on the currency bill, but Republicans filed a series of motions to suspend the rule against consideration of nongermane amendments after cloture has been invoked.

Reid said he and McConnell reached a preliminary agreement to conduct votes on seven of the GOP motions, but the Republican leader said Reid had swapped out one of them for another and asked Reid to restore his preference to permit consideration of an amendment by Mike Johanns, R-Neb., regarding potential regulation of dust produced by agriculture operations.

At that point, the Democratic leader’s patience seemed to run out.

Reid raised a point of order that post-cloture motions to suspend the germaneness rule amount to a prohibited dilatory tactic. The chair, after consulting with the parliamentarian, overruled Reid’s objection, but the Democratic majority defeated, 48-51, a motion to sustain the chair’s ruling. Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted with the Republican minority, saying he opposes changing Senate rules without hearings.

Senators said Thursday’s action will likely prevent future consideration of post-cloture motions to take up amendments. Some Republicans warned that Reid’s maneuver will only lead to more procedural fights.

Thursday’s clash triggered references to a Senate crisis in 2005, when Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee threatened to use the nuclear option to change Senate rules by a simple majority vote in order to outlaw filibusters of judicial nominations. That confrontation was ultimately avoided when a bipartisan group of 14 senators brokered a compromise.

Following Reid’s maneuver Thursday and amid the resulting uproar, Bob Corker, R-Tenn., asked both Reid and McConnell to explain to senators why the Senate “has degraded into a place of no longer any deliberation at all.”

Reid said Republicans have increasingly used motions to suspend the rules as a way to continue to delay legislation after the Senate has voted to limit debate. “This has to come to an end. This is not a way to legislate,” the majority leader declared. “If I was in the minority, I wouldn’t do this. I think it’s dilatory and it’s wrong.”

But McConnell said Reid has far too often prevented senators from offering amendments in order to protect Democrats from having to cast politically dangerous votes. “The fundamental problem here is that the majority here never likes to take votes,” McConnell said.

Tom Coburn, R-Okla., predicted that Republicans will unify in response to Reid’s move Thursday and will filibuster motions to take up bills unless they are guaranteed an opportunity to offer amendments.