Give President Bush a little credit. There are 55 Republicans, plus Nelson of Nebraska. The other 44 are worthless. But, out of those 56 possible yes votes, you have Chaffee Snowe Collins, Nelson, Specter--I am down to 51 already. Bush needs to consider the Senate's reaction. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough votes to do any old thing he wants to do.
That said, he could probably prevail with most of the conservative judges whose names have been tossed around...
You are pointing out the obvious. People just see the number of republicans and forget that there are four or five that would note vote for an ultra conservative.