By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

Maine’s two U.S. senators helped broker a last-minute deal to save the filibuster Monday night by agreeing with 12 other moderate Republicans and Democratic centrists that the procedure would be used against federal judicial nominees only in “extraordinary circumstances.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe was one of three Republicans believed certain to vote against the so-called “nuclear option” that would have done away with the filibuster.

Snowe said Monday: “I didn’t think the nuclear option was the way to go.” That final solution “would forever alter the institution” of the Senate, she said, which prompted her to work toward an alternative.

Democrats needed seven Republicans on their side to defeat that procedural maneuver.

At least four other GOP senators had considered splitting from leadership on the rule change.

One of them, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, was meeting from the start with those seeking a compromise.

Although Collins never stated publicly how she would have voted on a nuclear option – only she and her chief of staff knew – she said she was determined from the start to find a graceful way out of the showdown.

“I’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” she said after a press conference Monday night.

“It was difficult to craft language recognizing Democrats’ needs” to reserve the right to exercise the filibuster option if a real need arose, she said.

“On our (Republicans’) part, we wanted language that made clear if there is a breach of agreement, we were no longer bound” to oppose the nuclear option, she said. Collins said she came up with the language that held Democrats to a “continuing commitment” to honor the terms of the agreement or else all bets were off.

“That’s why trust is important,” she said.

Only about a half-dozen senators, including Snowe and Collins, began meeting to seek common ground on the issue in the wake of failed talks by Senate leaders.

By Thursday, at least a dozen swing-vote senators had come to a general agreement before breaking for the weekend, Snowe said. On Monday, they reconvened at 6:15 p.m. and had fine-tuned the document by 7 p.m., she said. Republicans presented the pact to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, while Democrats tracked down Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid for his OK.