The Legislature is coming back to Helena on Thursday, apparently armed with a deal crafted by the Schweitzer administration and a number of House Republicans to end the stalemate that caused the regular session to end with no budget.

On Tuesday, the Independent Record reported some of the details of the budget-and-tax package lawmakers said they had discussed at a meeting with administration officials in Helena on Saturday.

We admit the possibility of a short session seems like a relief.

After the acrimony and gamesmanship of the regular session's budget deliberations, beginning with the infamous "six pack" of bills, we suggested new GOP leadership when the special session began to avoid a repeat performance.

And the reported deal amounts to just that - an end run around GOP House leaders, especially House Speaker Scott Sales and Rep. John Sinrud, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Neither was at the meeting Saturday. And the number of Republicans who have reportedly signed on to the deal would keep Sinrud from locking it up in committee.

(House Majority Leader Michael Lange - whose profanity-laced tirade at Schweitzer in the closing days is the embarrassing spectacle most of us will remember from the session - was at the Saturday meeting. Having apologized for his remarks, perhaps he decided it was more politic to light a candle of compromise than curse the darkness.)

But the idea of a dozen or so lawmakers and administration officials basically hammering out the state budget when the Legislature isn't in session leaves us uneasy. Closed doors are closed doors.

We certainly aren't naive enough to think all the deliberations at the Legislature happen on the chamber floors.

But where's the room in this agreement for members the public to tell lawmakers what they think of the proposed budget?

This just isn't how the process is supposed to work.

It's going be hard for anyone testifying on the bills that make up the deal to think they aren't taking part in a pro-forma exercise.

So even if last Saturday's mini session got results after 90 days of frustration and farce, pardon us if we don't applaud too loudly.