Senate Shutdown?

From Jesse at Pandagon.net:

Well, according to Robert Novak, Senate Republicans are urging Bill Frist to shut down the entire Senate in response to what they perceive to be Tom Daschle's obstructionism.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is being urged by colleagues to threaten to close down the Senate for the rest of the year unless Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle ends his disruptive tactics.
In addition to menacing all judicial nominations, Daschle is now preventing legislation from being sent to Senate-House conferences to resolve differences in bills passed by both Houses unless the outcome is guaranteed.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, and other conservatives want Frist to counter Daschle by bringing the business of the Senate to a halt. This would mean passing an omnibus appropriations bill and then awaiting the outcome of the elections. Democrats could not offer their pet amendments, but it also would prevent passage of a budget resolution and, therefore, kill any chance of making the Bush tax cuts permanent.

So, in order to save it...you must destroy it. Of course, maybe Frist has an idea here - the Republican leadership shutting down the Senate for the rest of the year would ensure that next year's Senate is free from Democratic "obstructionism". After all, when Frist has engineered a Democratic takeover of the Senate, Daschle doesn't have to get in anyone's way but his own.

Town Hall and Frist's GOP are just filled with smart, dynamic thinkers, aren't they?