DBI mysql set transaction isolation level

[Anonymous Monk]

Greetings Monks!

I'm trying to set transaction isolation level in mysql and can't seem to get it to work. I've tried a bunch of permutations, different isolation levels, different places (directly after the connect), varying syntax and when I test for the level it shows it hasn't changed from the default (repeatable read). I googled and re-googled and saw about 20 results saying to do it the way I'm doing it, somewhere along the line found a result saying this couldn't be done in DBI. Is this true? Is the problem with the syntax, the DBI, my test, or the fact that it's Wed and it's gonna snow AGAIN! Any and all help appreciated. Thanks in advance.

my $result = $dbh->do("SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ COMMITTED"
+);
print Dumper($result);
my @results = $dbh->do("SELECT * FROM information_schema.global_variab
+les WHERE variable_name = 'tx_isolation'");
print Dumper(@results);