Watertown-area state Sen. Darrel Aubertine this week took it upon himself to add another embarrassing chapter to the Senate standoff by asking a court to force the state Assembly to accept bills hastily passed by Democrats last week after a Republican senator inadvertently walked into their meeting.

Since June 8, Democrats and Republicans have refused to vote as a group following a power-play by Republicans that has left the body essentially tied with 31 votes apiece.

But when Republican state Sen. Frank Padavan cut through the chamber to get a beverage last week, the Democrats gathered there had Padavan recorded as present and quickly “passed” more than 100 bills, arguing that because 32 senators had been in the room that the necessary quorum to conduct business had been met.

So, a Republican accidentally walked into a meeting that he had absolutely no intention of attending, much less taking part in, and the Democrats in the room decided that the Senate was somehow operating normally again?

This is no way to run a government, and Aubertine knows it.

We would have liked to believe that Aubertine was above this kind of foolishness.

He could have chosen to separate himself from the child-like conduct of some of his colleagues and worked toward a real solution to this stalemate.

And now that a power-sharing agreement seems to be coming together, the last thing the Senate needs is for individual senators to complicate things by running off to court to ask for rulings on small parts of larger problem.

And even if the one-time quorum argument were to be successful, it wouldn't do a thing to solve the ongoing dispute over which party has the right to control Senate meetings in the future.

Indeed, it might just push the two sides further apart.