To give a bit of a background, judiciary nomineee Henry Saad has been blocked from a Senate vote by Michigan senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow.  As National Review's Bryan York explains, they opposed Saad not because of ideological differences, but for revenge against the Republicans for not confirming a handful of judicial nominees from Michigan during Clinton's second term.  One of those was the spouse of Carl Levin's cousin, Helen White.

Harry Reid brought Saad up while speaking on the Senate floor last night:

"Henry Saad would have been filibustered anyway," Mr. Reid said on the floor yesterday, about the Michigan Appeals Court judge who is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

"All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree that there is a problem there," Mr. Reid continued.

It was a dirty trick, no doubt.  First, Reid knows every judicial nominee has an FBI file on them; that's one of the requirements.  Second, that FBI file is confidential; the public can't gain access to it and see if there is something in his file that would be troubling.  Hence, even if Reid was telling the truth, it's doubtful that anyone could confirm it.

But as Captain's Quarters points out, only a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee or the two Michigan senators have access to those files.  Harry Reid is neither of those, so he has no business looking in that file.  If he did, he broke a very important Senate rule, and should be brought up on charges.  But once again, that's hard to prove, because then you'd have to find evidence that Reid knows something that is in that file.  So once the outrage dies down, Reid will more than likely get away with this stunt.

Thus, Reid continues his sickening character assassinations of his political opponents, and more than likely doing the dirty work of Levin and Stabenow.  Democrats may rue the day they made this guy their Senate leader.