It's been compared to a poker game, a multi-act play, and a three ring circus. No matter what you call it, the special session is back.

At 1pm today, lawmakers convened in Springfield to consider strategies for funding the $2 billion deficit Gov. Rod Blagojevich has identified in the the state budget. If legislators don't support the governor's revenue plans, he has threatened to use his veto pen to cut $1.5 billion out of the spending plan.

Blagojevich's proposals include: tapping into more than $400 million in protected state accounts and privatizing the state lottery system. The House, under speaker and Blagojevich nemesis Michael Madigan, rejected the measures during the spring session. Last year, disagreement between the governor and the legislature left Illinois without a budget until August.

Here's what capitol-watchers are saying about this year's standoff.

The State Journal-Register reports that Blagojevich might not make good on his threats to cut the budget and also notes that Illinois Republicans have a greater amount of voice in budget decisions made in special session:

[Blagojevich has] shown signs that he might not go as deep as he threatened, backing off cuts in 4-H programs, Amtrak service and rape crisis centers after public outcry.

He also says there’s not enough legislative support for a plan to free up as much as $500 million by refinancing the state’s massive pension debt.

Any budget solution is complicated by the calendar, because the House needs a supermajority of votes to pass anything that would provide an immediate benefit. So Republicans, who refused to support the budget Democratic lawmakers sent the Democratic governor, would need to provide a few votes to help fill the gap in the budget they opposed in the first place.

The Sun-Times editorial board is calling the outcome of the session a foregone conclusion because House lawmakers -- under Madigan's leadership -- will never agree to the governor's funding proposals:

What this session is really about, then, is saving face. Blagojevich, knowing his bills likely won't prevail, wants Madigan to share the blame for the cuts he'll have to make [...]

Blagojevich set up the stalemate by engendering great mistrust, repeatedly going around the legislative process and constantly introducing big, headline-grabbing ideas that amounted to little. And Madigan hasn't helped matters by deciding he's done with Blagojevich. Madigan refuses even to meet with him.

Capitol Fax's Rich Miller agrees that the special session is another clash of wills between Madigan and Blagojevich. But he also gives some reasons why the Illinois Senate is not exempt from blame in the standoff:

The governor’s bold accusations miss two points-both of which are often overlooked by most of the media.

1) The House passed three different versions of the state budget. The Senate approved just one of them, the so-called “Christmas Tree” budget that loaded up on all sorts of goodies. The other two House-approved budgets, which are far more balanced, were never called for a vote in the Senate.

2) Senate President Emil Jones, like Madigan, is on record as supporting an income tax increase. A member of Jones’ own leadership team, Sen. John Cullerton, has said that he plans to call an income tax increase bill for a vote after the November election.

Jones is Blagojevich’s last powerful ally, so you won’t hear the governor say an unkind word about the Senate President. If he loses Jones’ support, he loses his war with Madigan, and the war with Madigan is more important to the governor than anything else.

Regardless of the reasons for the special session, the political cost of not releasing a budget soon would be great, according to the Illinois Issues blog:

The consequences of not acting on the governor’s wishes likely would threaten some state employees’ paychecks and some service providers’ reimbursements. With little hope that the House will come through on the governor’s wishes, he’ll likely feel a lot of pressure to cut out portions of the budget by week’s end to prevent state government from shutting down. A spokeswoman for his budget office said last week, “The governor has said there will not be a state shutdown.”

Tied up in the standoff over the budget is the capital improvements plan pushed by Blagojevich over the course of the spring. While everyone agrees that the so-called Illinois Works program is much-needed, House Democrats have refused to act on the proposal, citing their mistrust of the governor. In the hopes of breaking up the logjam, Blagojevich made a concession yesterday, agreeing to limits on his office's discretionary spending within the plan.

Beyond the political risks, the special session itself will cost taxpayers about $80,000, according to the Associated Press. Get your money's worth by tuning into the proceedings at www.ilga.gov.