Related story: House passes $5.9 billion budget after bitter debate
Also: Read the related stories and view video excerpts from the House debate

By Liz Anderson, Katherine Gregg and Scott Mayerowitz
Journal Staff Writers

This was the second of what turned out to be three late-late-night Fridays at the State House, and at first it looked to be the most routine.

After all, the signature moment in the life of the state budget is usually when it emerges from the Finance Committee in the House. By that time most of the deals have been done, with the House and Senate in rough agreement on the package. By the time it hits the House for a vote a week later, the governor's even had a few days to take his digs. Even better, we'd gotten our hands on the proposed ``floor amendments'' from various members, so we had some idea what kind of debate would ensue.

We started our day with some legwork -- researching facts like the number of state employees in the new package -- that would come in handy later. We split up the reporting -- Liz sat through most of the miscellaneous items and hatched out a framework for the story; Scott took on greyhound racing, the capital budget and the Board of Governors; and, eventually, Kathy -- after filing a separate story on the casino -- was free to drop in on the debate over new budget powers for the Judiciary.

By the time we filed the first-edition story, at 10:15 p.m., everything looked routine. The House was poised to approve the budget, the expected brouhahas had taken place, and they were yapping away upstairs.

But before returning to the office, Kathy picked up the rumor from the minority leader that the Democrats might be short the 50 votes they appeared to need to ratify appropriations.

And suddenly, it seemed like the Democrats were stalling for time. One after another they rose to make congratulatory speeches -- even as the hour neared midnight.

Had they told you about the special perks for higher ed? How about what this budget does for working families? Seniors? If there was a topic that had anything to do with the budget, a subcommittee head wanted to expound on it, at length.

Outside the chamber, House leaders, including the speaker, huddled, trying to bring missing members back to the State House for the final vote. Suddenly, Rep. Robert Flaherty -- who hadn't been there all night -- appeared. But others had left, including Rep. Peter Ginaitt, and no one was managing to prevail upon them to return.

Finally, a few minutes before midnight -- and 10 hours into the debate -- they readied to call the vote.

And suddenly, everything broke loose. Majority Leader Gordon Fox started accusing renegade Democrats of scheming with Governor Carcieri, screaming about putting ``lipstick on a pig'' and calling their actions ``despicable.'' Republicans who tried to interject were shot down -- one, Joseph Trillo, was even threatened with arrest. The Deputy Whip, Charlene Lima, was calling for a state police investigation.

Fox pleaded with members for their support. It wasn't clear whether House leaders thought they might have the 50 votes, or were angry they would not.

Scott, sitting on the House floor, tried to jot it all down and take it all in. Liz raced back and forth. Kathy monitored the debate in the office by TV. Exhibiting grace under fire, she took notes right into the top of the existing file, slammed together a new lead, begged the desk for more time, and deftly managed to shoehorn a strong sense of just how wild it got into what had been our run-of-the-mill budget rundown.

The aftermath, which unfolded from 12:30 a.m. on, was left for Sunday's report.

We're still recovering.