It was a bizarre weekend at the state Capitol. With the state careening toward financial insolvency, lawmakers essentially milled around for 26 more or less consecutive hours as legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bargained and smoozed in search of the final votes that would put a solution to the crisis in place.

Much has been said about the dysfunctional nature of the California Legislature, usually in regard to its work product or lack thereof. But the process is what is really strange: Nothing major ever gets done in daylight hours.

The Senate is scheduled to resume its session at 2:30 this afternoon, and the Assembly at 4. It could be that another of those long nights is in store. If a solution is enacted to save the state government from essentially shutting down, you can bet it will happen sometime between 1 and 4 a.m. -- on whatever day the impasse is broken.