Which is a reason why the deal is, however short-lived, a victory for the Senate and for Americans.

The arrangement was brokered by 14 senators - seven of them Republicans, seven of them Democrats, all of them fearful of abolishing a long Senate tradition and of potential gridlock for the rest of this Congress.

It allows three of President Bush's more controversial judicial nominations to come to a vote, one as soon as today. All are expected to win confirmation. That is what the Republicans wanted.

It also effectively blocks the nomination of two other nominees and at least delays a radical change in Senate rules that would end the use of the time-honored delaying tactic of the filibuster in future judicial nominations. That is what the Democrats wanted.

On the surface, it could appear that the Democrats caved.

The appeals court nominations of three judges described by liberal interest groups as holding extreme far-right positions on social and regulatory issues - Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and William Pryor - will now almost certainly be approved. What Democrats received in return, the recognized right to filibuster other judicial nominees "under extraordinary circumstances," is a vague victory subject to interpretation and, when the issue is a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, perhaps to be lost altogether.

But the fact that Republicans and Democrats worked together on this divisive issue to achieve any compromise is both significant and laudatory.

Democrats, holding a weak hand in the Senate, should make the best of the pact by conspicuously keeping their powder dry for the most important fights.

So should traditionalist Republicans who, even though they object to what they see as radical obstructionism of qualified jurists by the Democrats, are also loath to change Senate traditions long established for what may later seem to be transient causes.

Among those open to such wisdom is, apparently, Utah's Sen. Robert Bennett. Though not one of the Gang of 14, Bennett was heard to muse last week that, if the judicial filibuster were ended, and President Hillary Clinton put the name of so-called quota queen Lani Guinier before a 50-50 Senate, that nomination could not be blocked.

That's why some Republicans are being more careful what they ask for. Because they might get it.