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For Harry Reid and his Senate Democrats, revenge is a dish best served bold.

For years, they complained that the Republican minority had tied the chamber in knots. But now, just weeks into their stint in the minority, Democrats are brazenly using the same knot-tying procedures.

Four times, they used filibusters to block the majority from bringing up a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that would undo President Obamas executive orders on immigration. And even after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell essentially surrendered on Monday splitting the immigration proposal from the funding bill Democrats continued grandstanding gleefully on Tuesday, confident that if parts of the Homeland Security department shut down in the coming days Republicans will be to blame.

And so Reid (Nev.) led about 30 Senate Democrats and a couple of uniformed firefighter chiefs into a basement room in the Capitol complex Tuesday afternoon for a pep rally daring Republicans to let funding run out for DHS and essentially declaring the GOP majority soft on terrorism. With terrorists threatening to attack America, we must fund Homeland Security and fund it now, said Reid, who, wearing Wayfarer sunglasses and sporting ghastly facial bruises because of a recent accident, seemed downright scary as he invoked terrorist beheadings.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) asked of the Republicans: Are they going to prioritize politics? Or are they going to prioritize national security?

Top Senate Democrats insisted on Tuesday that legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security be passed before members would consider debate on immigration. (AP)

And Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, where the Mall of America is the target of a new terrorist threat by the Somali group al-Shabab, told Republicans to get these firefighters funded, to fund our security and not to send a message to al-Shabab that were just going to shut down Homeland Security.

All of this must make McConnell wonder why he wanted so much to become majority leader. The Kentucky Republican is making a good-faith effort to keep his promise not to have a shutdown. But he is finding out that the Senate is just as ungovernable under his Republican control as it was under the previous management.

For his troubles, McConnell is the target of carping by conservatives and is so far receiving no assistance from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Hes also an easy mark for mischief-making Democrats, who are now enjoying the advantage Republicans did for years: Its easier to stop things from happening than to make them happen.

On the Senate floor Tuesday morning, McConnell described his proposed surrender. My preference remains with the legislation thats already passed the House, he said, referring to the plan to make homeland-security funding conditional on the demise of Obamas immigration orders. But Im ready to try another way. I hope our friends across the aisle will demonstrate similar flexibility.

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Milbank: Harry Reid takes the stage in the DHS fiasco