There are encouraging signs the state Senate will approve an overdue budget in the near future – perhaps as early as next week. If so, will the Assembly muster the votes to do the same?

Answering that question is difficult, given the Assembly's penchant for delaying budget approval. Last year, for example, feuding lawmakers in the Assembly waited four months before finally approving a Senate-passed budget. This year's highly charged partisan atmosphere in Sacramento could produce another delay.

That overheated atmosphere intensified earlier this week when a strategic discussion among 11 Assembly Democrats was inadvertently broadcast around the Capitol. Red-faced members of the Democratic caucus discovered to their dismay that their comments, which they thought confidential, were being transmitted by an open microphone in the conference room. Some of the lawmakers brazenly speculated how they might benefit politically by dragging out the budget crisis.

Assembly Republicans called a press conference to deplore the Democrats' remarks. Then state Finance Director Steve Peace joined the fray by confronting Irvine Assemblyman John Campbell, the GOP's budget chief, in the hallway. The ever-pugnacious Peace blasted Campbell.

It's time for combatants on both sides to take a deep breath and stop hyperventilating.

Partisan sniping should not get in the way of getting a spending plan passed. Holding a deal hostage to gain political leverage is just plain wrong, no matter which side does it. Democrats who think the crisis can be parlayed to their strategic advantage deserve to be castigated. Ditto for any GOP hard-liners who believe the longer the fiscal crisis drags on, the greater the chances of recalling Gov. Gray Davis.

This is precisely the kind of cynical gamesmanship that has caused the public to hold the Legislature and the governor in low regard. Having grown weary of political food fights in Sacramento, Californians are justifiably disgusted.

There comes a point when the grown-ups on both sides of the aisle must place the interests of 35 million people above partisan politics. Each day without a budget is costing the state about $20 million in lost savings. This includes the proposed cuts that would have been implemented July 1. By summer's end, the state, which has essentially maxed out its credit cards, will run out of money. Meantime, Wall Street's credit-rating agencies are poised to downgrade California to junk-bond status.

Democratic and Republican legislative leaders should dial down the combative rhetoric and work for consensus on a credible spending plan. The stakes are simply too high to permit partisan squabbling to forestall a solution to California's worsening fiscal crisis.