The key to compromise, and success, is the word “yes.” “Yes, we can agree to that.” “Yes, we can live with that.” America, and the rest of the world that relies on our economy, was saved from the brink of uncertain economic disaster not by partisan ideologues who wake up in the morning finding ways to say “no,” but by the coalition of brave moderate Democratic and Republican Members in the House and Senate who were intent on getting to “yes.”…

Our legislative leaders should take this crucial opportunity to throw partisanship out the window and appoint those in the sensible center to the super committee.

Qualified Members should have a track record of bipartisanship, be devoid of ideological and inflammatory rancor, and be willing to roll their sleeves up and take some big risks, trusting that the legacy of their Congressional service will be the return to black ink on our federal balance sheet.

If one does not believe in principled compromise, then how can one believe in democracy and freedom? Only in a dictatorship does one have his own way 100 percent of the time. That’s not a country where I or any American I know would want to live. For all of us, and those who will follow, let us look for a way to say “yes.”