When a bipartisan group of 14 Senators gathered last week in the Capitol, they struck a blow against polarization and a short-sighted effort to radically change the U.S. Senate. Their compromise on judicial nominations, temporary though its effects may be, represented a triumph of common sense. Seven members from each party came to a genuine and sound agreement and they did it in the midst of a nearly poisonous atmosphere that had been threatening to grow still worse. In doing so, they prevented the Senate's Republican leadership from changing the chamber's rules to require up-or-down majority-wins votes on every nominee to the federal judiciary and averted a looming "nuclear option."

Chief among the deal's architects was Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. In his success, he revealed both a respect for bipartisanship and a faith in sane politics over partisan orthodoxy. For weeks leading up to the impending confrontation, he worked quietly to cobble together and bolster up a group of leaders who crossed party lines and advocated a reasoned stand down.

On the eve of Republican Leader Bill Frist's (TN) decision to push forward with the nuclear option, Nelson, Republican Senator John McCain (AZ), and a dozen others announced their solution with relief and pride: "Our compromise was crafted within the rules of the Senate, without requiring a rules change or a change in minority rights in the Senate," Nelson said.

"The negotiated and agreed upon compromise is aimed at preventing a momentous vote on whether to strip the Minority of their capacity to use the filibuster to block Bush's candidates for federal courts."

The seven Republicans made a commitment to vote against a nuclear maneuver for the rest of this Congress. The seven Democrats agreed to reserve filibusters against judicial nominees to "extraordinary" cases, which aptly captures the extraordinary nature of filibusters themselves. The two sides compromised on the Court of Appeals judges that would be subject to further filibusters, and although a couple of the "cleared" nominees have troubling records, letting them go is far preferable to permanently losing the filibuster tool against potential extremist Supreme Court candidates.

With eight years during the '90s as Nebraska's governor under his belt, Nelson has earned a reputation for hammering out real solutions that deliver tangible results. Last week in Washington, Nelson and his colleagues put that reputation to the test in an environment of bitter polarization.

"In addition to having people here whose word is good, you also have mutual trust," Nelson said. "Now the Senate can move forward and get to important business."

It is unclear how long the truce will last -- and with John Bolton's nomination to be named ambassador to the United Nations still hanging over the Senate, our glimpse of civility may have been very short-lived.

Ultimately though, what America saw last week in the work of Nelson and his colleagues, was not a long-term solution to any of the challenges Senate Democrats continue to face today. Rather, it is a promising beginning and one that manages also to honor and respect the party's core principles. Indeed, both the group that struck this deal and Democrats like Minority Leader Harry Reid, who welcomed the compromise, seem to agree that empowering the extremes by indulging in unending ideologically motivated procedural games of chicken, ultimately hurts no one more than it does the American people.