The “Big Five” used to be a meeting that was called for the top dogs to negotiate the budget. Then, it morphed into a way to also negotiate issues of major importance, even issues that could be taken to the ballot.

Today, the spectacle that is a “Big Five” became a meeting called to talk about… well, nothing specific.

A throng of reporters waited outside the office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at midday for some sense of why the meeting had been called. In fact, the only sure thing after about an hour seemed to be that the meeting was winding down… and that only seemed likely because actress Marilu Henner (who had appeared at a Capitol event earlier in the morning) was quickly escorted inside, presumably to say hello to the governor.

On their way out, the four legislative leaders basically said the meeting was about everything… and nothing. I’m not kidding.

Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman: “We identified a number of areas, like transportation, energy, water, and education, that we’re going to start working on at the end of [legislative] session and try and come up with some comprehensive proposals for next year.”

Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy: “We set a framework to start working on it, a framework to actually come to a conclusion, a framework to actually solve the problems.”

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez: “We talked about getting together more often, so that the ugliness of the election doesn’t get in the way of us all working together to accomplish good things for California.”

And from Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who was probably the most specific about why he thought the meeting was called: “I think the governor understands the potential for a lot of [political] damage in the last two weeks [of the legislative session] because of the election. He wanted to make sure we were working together. And we have no problem with that.”

In other words, everyone seems to be watching how the annual dance over bills passed, bills signed, and bills vetoed will impact the pending campaign on ballot initiatives that, if approved by voters, could dramatically change the way business is done at the Capitol.

If that’s the case, the meeting was about a lot more than what was literally on the agenda.