NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that if Americans are dying for their country overseas, the least he could do is risk angering some people by agreeing to a Senate compromise that avoided an explosive battle over judicial nominations and filibusters.

"I decided along with other colleagues to have a time out. I'm glad we did," the Republican lawmaker said during a Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon, his first public appearance in South Carolina since last week's agreement. "We're going to get some votes on judges we wouldn't have gotten otherwise."

Seven Republicans and seven Democrats crafted the deal opening the way for yes-or-no votes on some of President Bush's stalled judicial nominations while protecting Democrats' rights to filibuster nominees they feel are out of the mainstream.

"I felt it was incumbent upon me to do the best I could to bring about normalcy in uncertain times - to get us back to a model that has worked for 200 years," Graham said.

Some conservatives criticized the agreement and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, even warned there will be repercussions for Republicans who went along.

Graham, however, explained how he spent time earlier this week in Asia visiting American troops.

"None of them have to go. They all choose to go. Some of them are not going to come back," he said. "The least I can do is be willing to make a few people mad for the good of our country."

Graham said the compromise gives the Senate a new start.

"What we need to have is a system where people who come forward are not filibustered based on ideology but voted on based on qualifications," he said. "We have got the hope of going back to the old way of doing business that if you didn't like them, you voted against them, but everybody got a vote."

"If I'm wrong, and it all breaks down, I am willing, ready and able to break the rules" on filibusters, he said, referring to the so-called nuclear option.

He predicted Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, will be approved and when a seat on the Supreme Court opens "we're going to talk to each other and we're going to pick somebody who will be a good conservative justice and who also will be a great American."

If the agreement holds, the consequences "are unbelievably good for the country. If we can solve this, maybe we can solve Social Security. If we can solve this, maybe we can come up with the energy bill where we are less dependent on Mideast oil," said Graham, who also worked to broker a compromise in Social Security legislation.