“FREEDOM of speech is being exercised,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday. “They’re calling in to the office and yelling and screaming, and they don’t quite understand what’s going on.”

He was speaking of the professional polarizers who staff the Washington interest groups that have the U.S. Senate in a death grip over judicial nominations.

Sen. Graham is getting particular heat because he’s one of the “gang of 12” who have been trying to negotiate a way out before the crucial vote Tuesday on the “nuclear option” — a GOP move to end filibusters of judicial nominees with a simple majority.

This extreme, destructive ploy by Republicans has been precipitated by the destructive extremism of Democrats who twist the purpose of filibusters. (A filibuster is supposed to give a minority a chance to be heard, not a veto over the majority will.)

Pressed by the interest groups, the Senate’s party leaders have stopped trying to work this out. Into that leadership vacuum walk the 12. They include people such as John McCain and Joe Lieberman, who hearken back to the statesmanship that ruled the Senate before Roe v. Wade politicized the judiciary by constitutionalizing a political issue.

Mr. Graham plays a critical role because he and Mike DeWine of Ohio are the only two real “yes” votes in the bunch. In other words, they will vote to end judicial filibusters if a sensible deal is not worked out. Without them, it’s just a bunch of people who plan to vote “no” anyway “negotiating” among themselves.

Sen. Graham says the six Democrats and six Republicans are willing to buck the leadership and the outside pressure groups because they’re trying to save the U.S. Senate — and more importantly, the independent judiciary.

“If the Senate blows up, forget about Social Security. If the Senate blows up, forget about getting things done for the country. We’re gonna institutionalize the culture of hatred to where it will spill over into the next Senate.”

But he’s even more worried about the judiciary.

“I’m a conservative. I’ve been the most vocal critic of the filibuster,” he said. “I believe in the traditional filibuster for legislation. I don’t believe 40 senators have the right to change the constitution by Senate rule” — which is what some Democrats want to do.

“The Constitution, as I see it, had a role for the Senate to play, and that was: Vote.”

But as much as he disagrees with some Democrats on this, he’s glad to find others he can work with, because the republic is at stake. Our system depends on judges to be fair umpires, to “call balls and strikes” without prejudice, he said. And now: “We’re creating an aura where balls and strikes are not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for people who think like we do.”

That’s completely unacceptable. “Politics is about loud noise and 50 plus one,” he said. “The courtroom should be a quiet place where it shouldn’t matter if you’re popular — a place where the unpopular cause... gets a fair shake.”

For Sen. Graham’s part, “I will not let somebody’s individual belief about pro-life or pro-choice determine my vote.” What he asks is, “Can you be different from me and be fair?”

That applies to politics, too, and among the “gang of 12,” he believes he has found some who disagree, but can indeed be fair.

The looming crash on Tuesday has helped focus the minds of those who would save the Senate.

“To launch a nuclear missile, you need two keys,” and the Senate has now reached its Failsafe point. “We’re down to the final 10 seconds, and there are some people on the other side saying, ‘I don’t want to turn the key.’”

“I see hope now, where I didn’t see it a week ago.”

In 2002, this newspaper endorsed Alex Sanders over Mr. Graham. I explained the choice this way at the time: “Graham would be a fine senator, but Sanders might be a great one.”

Now I’m thinking Lindsey Graham could turn out to be that great senator we were looking for.

Back then, we were impressed by Judge Sanders’ commitment to reducing the partisanship that we saw eating away at the soul of this country.

Now, we see Sen. Lindsey Graham sticking his neck out to do just that. He has reached repeatedly across the aisle to try to work out a commonsense solution on Social Security; to try to get China to play fair on trade; to work (with Hillary Clinton!) to improve health care for the military. He called the president’s attorney general nominee on the carpet for countenancing torture.

And now, he is one of the 12 rebels of both parties trying to save the Senate and judiciary for the sake of the great majority of us who are sick of having our nation’s public life defined by professional advocates of extremism.

According to conventional “wisdom,” whether he and the others among the 12 turn out to be heroes or goats when the vote comes on Tuesday will depend upon their ability to reach out to each other, in mutual trust, across the gulf that divides left and right in this country.

But just the fact that they’re trying, with extremists on both sides screaming at them and their party leaders eyeing them with wariness and suspicion, makes them heroes in my book.

Mr. Warthen has a brand-new blog. Check it out at http://blogs.thestate.com/ bradwarthensblog/