Actually, as can be seen here (PDF file), he did very much support the REAL ID Act.
This incidentally blows out of the water the whole theory that Bush is soft on illegal entry because he wants to attract Hispanic votes. He's soft on illegal entry because he's committed to turning the Americas into an EU-style superstate. And as that Ron Paul column you linked to indicates, the REAL ID Act is a step in that direction because it provides for, among other things, the sharing of U.S. driver's license data with Canada and Mexico.
That document is dated February 2005. President Bush did kind of a John Kerry number: he supported it after he opposed it. He worked very hard to get it stripped out of the 9/11 Security Bill in 2004. He wasn't given much choice but to support it in February because Sensenbrenner and the House Leadership made it clear that it was going to be attached to the first "must pass" bill in 2005 and that it would be nonnegotiable. His choices were to support it or get handed a defeat by his own party and have it pass anyway
As far as attracting Hispanic votes goes, I've always believed that the Republicans new found enthusiasm for the Hispanic vote and all of the hispandering was just a smokescreen for the real objective which is to secure an unlimited supply of cheap labor.