While Gov. M. Jodi Rell is already backing off the possibility of closing state parks, the prospect of having a state budget by next week dimmed considerably Friday as the legislature's bid to revoke the governor's power to appoint a U.S. senator in case of a vacancy unleashed a political firestorm.

Rell's press secretary, Christopher Cooper, said the state cannot afford political gamesmanship as the legislature speeds toward the mandated end of the regular session on Wednesday at midnight.

"It is astonishing that the Democrats would spend their time on such blatant, partisan politics instead of working to adopt a balanced budget that will help Connecticut families through the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," Cooper said. "People are losing their homes and their jobs. They are fearful about the future, and meanwhile the Democrats are playing politics as usual instead of meeting their statutory mandate to adopt a budget."

In the administration's traditional response, Cooper declined to say whether Rell would veto the bill until it reaches her desk.

Since most legislators and insiders believe that Rell and Democratic legislators will not reach a budget deal by the constitutional adjournment of the regular legislative session on Wednesday, the next important date on the legislative calendar is the end of the fiscal year on June 30. The two sides resumed budget talks Friday after the talks were called off earlier this week.

Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams said the Rell administration should not have been surprised by the U.S. Senate vacancy bill because it was filed months ago and would simply allow voters to elect their senator.

"It's all very straightforward," Williams said Friday night. "It's odd that they would be so sharp in their criticism. It seemed like a good government thing to do."

With the budget talks restarted, Williams said it was the push from the Democrats that prompted Rell to release a supplemental budget this week.

"It would have been great if the governor put a balanced budget on the table a long time ago," Williams said, adding that Rell's proposal is "still $1 billion short."

Since the two sides have not yet reached a final agreement, the budget deal will likely be pushed "later into the month of June," Williams said.

If there is no budget by the start of the new fiscal year, Rell has developed contingency plans to keep the state operating. She told reporters that all nonessential spending would be halted, but her budget office has not revealed precise details of which state services might be temporarily suspended.

"It's fair to say that no decisions have been made," said Jeffrey Beckham, the third-highest-ranking official in the governor's budget office. "We've thought about it. We've talked about it."

One of the actions that definitely will not be taken is the closing of state parks. Then-Gov. Lowell P. Weicker closed parks and campgrounds in the summer of 1991 and gained the ire of many residents. By contrast, Rell quickly reversed herself Friday on a potentially unpopular move that she had announced Thursday: to close some state parks as part of a supplemental budget she offered to cut $1.3 billion in state spending over two years.

By Friday afternoon, Cooper was telling reporters that the governor had found an additional $1 million a year to take from an underground-tank fund in the state Department of Environmental Protection budget. The original proposal had been to take $2.9 million from that fund in each of the next two years, and now the annual figure will be $3.9 million.

In the context of a budget of many billions, there was room to do that, Cooper said.

He said the reversal came not because of any protests from the public or legislators, but because Rell just thought it over.

"Really, the governor reconsidered that particular cut because she recognizes that, especially in the warmer-weather months, our state parks are heavily utilized, and we are promoting staycations" to keep residents from vacationing out of state, Cooper said. He added that the state parks are "a very good recreational value for families, especially in these tough fiscal times" and added that Rell "wants to make sure the full range of state park facilities are open and available for use."

Rell's office was not calling the park-closing proposal a political mistake, but longtime Capitol observers said it could have turned into a big one as the summer gets hot.

Rell's supplemental budget still would close four courthouses in Manchester, Putnam, Norwalk and Derby, consolidate agencies, and legalize Keno gambling to balance the state's two-year budget.

The new budget would require no new taxes or cuts in education aid for municipalities and would reduce spending by 1.4 percent below the level for the current fiscal year. Rell's original budget in February called for spending $38.4 billion over the next two fiscal years, while the updated budget now reduces that number to $37.2 billion.

Under Rell's original park proposal announced Thursday, she had intended to save $1 million per year by eliminating 200 summer jobs in state parks. However, the state's biggest shoreline parks - like Hammonasset in Madison and Sherwood Island in Westport - would have remained open. Even without staffing, some state parks would have stayed open if lifeguards weren't necessary. Putnam Park in Redding, for example, would have been kept open even without staffing.

Tempers have flared at the Capitol this week over a number of issues.

In the wee hours of Friday morning, state Senate Democrats voted to remove Rell's power to appoint a U.S. senator in case of a vacancy, and to fill future Senate vacancies via special elections. But by afternoon Rell was ripping the bill as "blatant, partisan politics."

Cooper said: "We are now five months into the legislative session and the Democratic leaders have not yet voted on a budget - which should be the sole focus of this legislative budget session."

Cooper said "the current system" - in which a governor appoints a senator's replacement for a maximum of two years, until the next federal election in an even-numbered year - "has worked well for 50 years, and the governor believes that there are many, many more important things for the legislature to be spending its time on."

Under the bill, there would be a special election if one of the two U.S. senators - currently Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman - stepped down from office before the six-year term ended.

At 2:10 a.m. Friday, the Senate voted 21-12, on strict party lines, with three members absent, on the underlying amendment regarding the vacancy. The bill would apply to whoever is in the gubernatorial chair.

"In recent years, we've seen corruption and scandal surround the appointment of a U.S. senator by governors in states across our country," said Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford. "The bottom line is that no one person, no one party and no one group of special interests should have the power to choose the individual who will serve in such an important position. That is a power that belongs firmly in the hands of the people. And, very simply, that's what this bill does: It returns the power to the people."

As to Republicans' question as to why the bill was being debated now, Slossberg said, "What I tell my children is there's never a wrong time to do the right thing."