(Photo Credit: ABC)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today drew on the image of rodeo greased pig contests to describe working with Republicans in the Senate.

"Oft times, working with my Republican Senate colleagues reminds me of chasing one of these little pigs in a greased pig contest," Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor this morning. "Regardless of all of our efforts, any time we get close to making promise, it seems as though we watch it slip out of our hands and the Republicans scamper away."

Reid even described a greased pig contest, saying kids "try to scoop up this scurrying pig. It's really quite a spectacle. It's fun to watch."

"The organizers get a little pig, a piglet, and they cover this little animal with grease. It's a greasy little pig, and then they turn the kids loose and they invite these children to chase one of these kids and the pigs are a little slippery to begin with but you cover them with grease, they're really slippery and these kids run around the arena and try to grab it and fall and have a great time," he added.

The comparison preceded a procedural vote on the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill. Republicans and some Democrats are pushing for a vote on the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and are considering adding it as an amendment to the energy measure.

Last week, Reid said he would be open to having amendments on the bill, including one that would have required a vote on the Keystone XL pipeline. Republicans asked for consent to add five amendments to the measure, but Democrats objected. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Reid was impeding on the rights of the minority by not allowing amendments to the energy bill.

"This is not the way to run the Senate," McConnell said. "The minority represents a lot of Americans, millions and millions of Americans. We're entitled to have our ideas debated and voted on in the Senate as well. Votes that we want to vote on, not ones that the majority leader picks for us."