The ongoing debate over the Hawaii Superferry is contentious enough. Placing it in the hands of a Democrat-led Legislature and a Republican executive branch in hopes that a compromise will be found is optimistic, but not impossible. If there is any chance of salvaging this complicated situation, that is exactly what must be done.

As Advertiser writer Derrick DePledge reported, State Attorney General Mark Bennett distributed a draft compromise House and Senate Democrats, who reviewed it as they were deciding whether to support a special session. Yesterday, State Sen. President Colleen Hanabusa said that a majority in the Senate is willing to come back into special session to help save the Superferry.

The draft weighs giving Superferry the ability to operate, while safeguarding the environment during a full environmental impact statement.

Indeed, this process leading to a special session is as complex as the session itself. But it's encouraging to see that at the very least, something's on the table for discussion. What's needed now is for lawmakers to put the politics aside, focus on the draft and weigh the issues fairly.

Hanabusa agrees that this will be a challenge: "You're not going to get all branches to agree. Then there's the element of the Superferry itself. But as far as the House and Senate, it's going as well as can be expected."

That's good to hear. But for this process to move forward, the House and Senate must find a way to work with Superferry executives and Gov. Linda Lingle — which will be difficult to do if its members are mired in the blame game.

State Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser teamed up with several lawmakers who are calling for an investigation into the Lingle administration's handling of the Superferry. As David Shapiro's column today rightly points out, there will be a time and place for that, but this isn't it.

The road leading to a special session won't be smooth — which is why it's going to take each party's focus to ensure the process advances.

"This is an extraordinary remedy and tricky in the sense that we're talking about an ongoing court decision," she said. "The Legislature would basically overrule it. In order to take such action we have to be sure that whatever legislation we come up with addresses all the potential constitutional challenges to that act."

Clearly, lawmakers have enough to do before launching into an investigation that will also demand their time, energy — and undivided attention.