NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Sen. Lindsey Graham's role in a compromise on judges and filibusters doesn't sit well with some party regulars in this Republican state.

But nobody is writing the political obituary of the freshman GOP senator who succeeded the legendary Strom Thurmond.

"I'm not going to conduct myself in a way where I'm the loudest guy, and I'm not going to be satisfied with rhetoric that gins up a small group of people," Graham told The Associated Press in an interview last week after his first public appearance in South Carolina since the deal was announced.

"I can tell you this state respects senators who are independent, who share their conservative values and who treat their colleagues with respect," he added.

Seven Republicans and seven Democrats crafted the compromise 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.

Graham's role sparked hundreds of phone calls to state Republican headquarters and has given Charleston businessman Thomas Ravenel another reason to consider a primary challenge.

"It's one of the hottest issues I've seen since I've been chairman," said state GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, who has served for three years.

"There was a lot of heartburn inside the base of the Republican Party," he said. "President Bush won 70 percent of the counties in the United States and people wanted his agenda moved forward."

Ravenel, who finished a strong third in a crowded field in last year's race for South Carolina's other U.S. Senate seat, has been thinking about challenging Graham for months.

Ravenel, who's father was a congressman, doesn't like Graham's positions on trade and objects to his Social Security proposal to increase taxes on those earning more than $90,000. Now comes another compromise.

"He has long since offended the fiscal conservatives," Ravenel said. "More recently he has offended the other Republican coalition - the social conservatives."

Graham said the filibuster deal gives the Senate a fresh start and allows lawmakers to consider some of President Bush's judicial nominations. Changing the rules on filibusters - the so-called nuclear option - is still on the table if the compromise later fails, the senator says.

Even in Graham's home county, some felt negotiating was out of order, says Oconee County GOP Chairman Ed Rumsey.

"They wanted him to stand firm and have an up-or-down vote on every candidate," said Rumsey, who received a handful of negative calls. But, he adds, "Lindsey Graham is our hometown guy. We're going to stand by him."

There was a scattering of negative calls in strongly Republican Lexington County but most people called the compromise "typical Lindsey," said county chairman Tim Miller.

"He said, 'Look, we can't allow something like this to bog down the country. We need to do what's best for America,'" Miller said.

"Some people said they did not intend to have two John McCains in Washington, D.C., when they voted for Lindsey Graham," said Beaufort County GOP Chairman Doug Robertson, who says calls he received were split.

"It's not the Democrats. It's more that he allied himself with McCain because McCain was rejected in the (presidential) primary" in South Carolina in 2000, said Doug Woodard, a Clemson University political scientist who often serves as a Republican consultant.

Graham supported the Arizona senator five years ago but, by 2002, had mended fences with George Bush supporters, many of whom served on his Senate finance committee, Woodard said.

South Carolinian Roberta Combs, president of the national Christian Coalition, says the compromise wasn't what the conservative group wanted.

"What people were upset about and what I was upset about was these judges had been waiting so long and you couldn't get them to the floor," she said.

But she doesn't think Graham's base is damaged.

"In politics a day is forever. Only time will tell," she said. "I don't think this is going to hurt Lindsey because he is strong on defense and supports the president on the war and has been a team player."

As a congressman, Graham was a fixture on national television during the so-called Republican coup against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and as a House prosecutor during President Clinton's impeachment.

"He's got the best political instincts of anyone I have ever seen," Woodard said, recalling Graham won the nomination for the late Thurmond's seat - a seat coveted by South Carolina politicians for decades - without primary opposition.

"He's always had this independent streak and this kind of flare about him," Woodard added. "This time it has incurred more discontent than other things he has done because he is in the Senate and it affects the whole state."

Graham said while some people will disagree with the compromise, he wants to reach the same place most Republicans do - getting more conservative judges on the bench.

"For some people in politics it's not enough to agree with them on the issue, you have to hate the people they hate," he said. "I'm not going to be a hater. I'm going to be a solid conservative and a reformer."

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Associated Press Writer Michael Kerr in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.