ALBANY—Saying New Yorkers could consider them “rude, inconsiderate and egotistical,” a state judge Monday ordered all 62 senators to the chamber floor today to put an end to the “illusion” that Democrats and Republicans have been working over the last week.

The insertion of the judiciary into the messy partisan fight in the Senate gave a victory to Gov. David A. Paterson, who brought the legal action to compel the entire Senate to consider important legislation due to expire at midnight tonight.

State Supreme Court Justice Joseph C. Teresi said the last week of sessions by Democrats and Republicans— in which each side gaveled in for a few brief minutes but separately from the other to avoid a quorum for the governor’s special sessions — have been “a fiction, an illusion that these elected officials are working.”

“I will not be a part of that fiction,” he said in ordering the 10 a. m. session.

Whether the judge’s order holds is uncertain. Lawyers for Republican senators were certain to appeal before the 10 a. m. session will be approved, though Paterson’s lawyers say an appeal is not automatically granted.

“We expect every senator to be there, and anyone who isn’t I would suggest not relying on that [GOP] lawyer when we take action against them,” Paterson threatened, without elaborating. He later reeled in speculation that he might use state troopers to round up senators, saying that is something for “nondemocratic governments around the world.”

Senate Democrats, despite appearing alongside Republican lawyers in court arguing against Paterson’s legal motion, said they will be in session this morning.

The judge’s ruling is the latest twist in the gridlock that has brought the Senate’s business to a halt since the June 8 coup, in which two Democrats joined 30 Republicans to take back control of the Senate from the Democrats. One Democrat dissident later flipped back, creating a 31-31 tie, with both sides contesting each other’s leadership claims and refusing to appear jointly in session to avoid a quorum to get bills passed.

A number of state and local laws expire at midnight tonight. Chief among them for upstate is a program that provides low-cost power for companies and not-for-profits, such as hospitals. Sixteen percent of the 600 companies in the Power for Jobs program are located in Western New York, including 59 in Erie County, such as the Ford stamping plant.

While some senators believe that Paterson can keep the program through executive order, aides to the governor insist he does not have that power. Lawmakers also contend the program’s benefits can be applied retroactively in the days or weeks ahead if the factions don’t resolve their feud and the program expires.

“Not extending Power for Jobs will have a huge, negative impact on upstate employers, one that is especially troublesome, given they’ve already been hit so hard by the significant number of increased taxes and fees in the 2009-10 state budget and by the lingering economic downturn,” said Andrew J. Rudnick, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.

Senate Democrats said Monday that they refuse to meet anymore in private negotiating sessions with Republicans. The Republicans say that they welcome public sessions and that the Democrats are so divided they keep changing members of their negotiating team.

Teresi’s ruling was the latest in a series of court maneuverings since June 8 — though it is the first time a judge has decided to get directly involved.

Lawyers for the Democrats and Republicans — sitting side by side — urged the judge to reject Paterson’s motion that all 62 members be compelled to show up today. Democrats have argued that Paterson’s special sessions are illegal because the Assembly wasn’t brought back, too. Republicans and Democrats both say the judiciary should stay out of the business of the Legislature and that the fight is an internal matter.

“Any other result would be to micromanage the Senate,” David Markus, a lawyer for the Democrats, said in urging Teresi to reject Paterson’s motion.

But Teresi, noting that important bills are hanging in the air, rejected the lawmakers’ claims. He said senators have “a unique opportunity as elected officials to take the high road, do the right thing for the greater good.”

“Otherwise,” he said, “there are those citizens who would conclude, if they have not already, that these members have put their own interests ahead of all other citizens of this state for the benefit of their own personal and selfish interests. And that those same people may also conclude and define that conduct as rude, inconsiderate and egotistical.”

All sides agree the governor's powers are limited to calling lawmakers to a special session. He can't actually compel them to act one way or another on his bills. On Monday, the Senate ... first the Democrats and then the Republicans separately ... went into session to consider 101 bills Paterson put on the agenda. They gaveled in and then quickly out, as they have been doing for a week, without putting any of the bills to a vote. With only 31 members in each faction ... and several Democrats not showing up, anyway, in recent days - there is no quorum to even vote.

Doing a victory lap after being ignored by senators the past week,

Paterson said that senators have used up their excuses and distractions and that those not showing up today will be in violation of their oath of office.

"The senators need to get back to work," said Paterson, who canceled a scheduled trip to Buffalo this morning to remain in Albany.

Democrats sought to raise pressure on Republicans by saying billions of dollars in legislation is hanging in the balance. But some of the must-do bills they claimed expire tonight would not die for four months or more. There are dozens of county sales tax surcharges on the hook. Although they don’t expire until Nov. 30, counties would like certainty now that the extra revenue will still flow.

“Today, the rubber meets the road,” Sen. John L. Sampson, a Brooklyn Democrat, said of the need to extend the expiring laws. He accused the group of one Democrat and 30 Republicans of refusing to put aside the leadership fight for another day and pass the needed bills.

But Sen. Pedro Espada, a Bronx Democrat whom Republicans elected Senate president in the coup, said the leadership fight must be resolved now or the stalemate could drag on until the election in the fall of 2010.

Paterson is already, for instance, making sounds of having to bring back both houses to deal with a revenue shortfall in the budget. A splintered Senate could pose major complications for resolving what would already be a sticky fiscal matter.

Espada said the Democrats want to "hijack democracy" by nullifying the June 8 vote that made him Senate president and Sen. Dean Skelos, a Long Island Republican, majority leader. "They want to actually steal a vote," he said.

"We can't undo that because 31 [senators] don't like it," he later said on the Senate floor.

Republicans say Democrats refuse to make a long-term deal ... through 2010 ... because Democrats believe they may be able to pick off one or two Republican senators during that time. One senior Democrat confirmed there was anger expressed at a private meeting between Senate Democrats and Paterson the evening before that the governor had three opportunities in the past six months to offer plumb state jobs to Senate Republicans. If he had, that would have consolidated the Democrats' power to avoid things like the June 8 coup.

Both sides have tried to out-duel each other in professing sadness for the state of the things in the Senate the past three weeks.

"Embarrassed? That's an understatement. We're ashamed," said Sampson, the Democratic leader.