When state lawmakers on each side of the aisle began to work on a budget, you sat back as activists from both parties pulled out their pitchforks. Labor leaders have threatened to wage recall efforts against Democrats who vote to ease workplace rules or reduce state spending. Conservatives say they will bury any Republican who votes to raise taxes. At home, voters are wondering whom to blame for not getting their way.

After Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, said he would vote for a tax increase if Democrats agreed to limit spending in the future, former state GOP Sen. Ray Haynes took off on Adams for putting the "short-term pursuit of power over the long-term pursuit of principle" on the popular conservative website www.flashreport.org.

The problem is: Republicans' idea of principle has been to pass spending plans that burned extra tax dollars without levying higher taxes to pay for these programs. As Republican Tom Campbell, the former state finance director who may run for governor in 2010, noted, "There is nothing principled in passing a dishonest budget."

And: "To say that because you're willing to compromise, you lack principle, well, that's an argument for a monarchy."

As of my deadline, details of the Sacramento budget are sketchy, but Sen. GOP leader Dave Cogdill told the Sacramento Bee he was releasing Republicans to support the measure because, "I've negotiated it to the point where I think it doesn't get any better."

Even without the details, I can safely predict the plan will include painful spending cuts and painful tax increases. Yes, it will be humbling.

It could have been easier if Sacramento solons had been better at cutting deals earlier. Alas, like their constituents, Sacramento lawmakers have had a too-royal view of their principles. Like children, they've dedicated their careers to doing whatever they pleased -- righteous in their conviction that whatever came easy was right.