Back in the fall, when Democrats were campaigning to take control of the State Senate, our editorial staff wrestled with our endorsements. In general, we like the Democrats' stand on issues - abortion rights, gay rights, death penalty, Rockefeller drug laws, for instance - better than the Republicans'.

But we don't like one-party government. One advantage to total Democratic control, though, would be that they could no longer blame Republicans for the silliness that often constitutes New York State government.

Well, the Democrats are in control, and over the past week we've seen how they behave.

1) They believe that open government is a nuisance. They put together the new state budget behind closed doors - in a secret process, the news media are reporting, that has shocked even insiders who are pretty much numbed to Albany shenanigans.

Their justification, according to media reports, is that if they'd crafted this budget in public, they wouldn't have been able to make the tough decisions they had to make.

And what are those tough decisions?

2) Beats me. Best I can tell, they have bravely kicked the tough decisions down the road. Yes, they did agree to tax wealthier New Yorkers, for which I applaud them. And they passed a new bottle bill, so now our plastic water bottles will be returnable, just like soft-drink containers.

And yes, this wasn't an easy hole to deal with, and the Democrats managed to protect some important services. And yes indeed, public-employee unions made the task harder by refusing any wage concessions.

But the Democrats solved a third of the budget shortfall not by trimming more costs or postponing projects but by using the federal stimulus bill. That's a one-shot, and it simply delays the pain.

The Democrats, who have only a tenuous hold on the Senate, have handed the Republicans some strong campaign material for the next election.

And by retreating behind closed doors, they've moved beyond politics into pure arrogance.