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You are being incredibly naive about the Senate. Let me try and explain this to you one more time. I will give some background for additional understanding.

President Bush has low approval ratings right now. This doesn't particularly bother him, but it affects the Senators, many of whom are cowards.

Why is the approval rating so low? Well, the LAST time there was a controversy (Katrina) we had a whole bunch of conservative pundits and elected Republicans who, instead of defending the President, bought into the media's interpretation about his response. They couldn't stick with him on something in which he was obviously right, because they are too easily swayed by the press.

Their lack of backbone contributed directly to the drop in the President's numbers. Then, when his numbers drop, they get worried that they might not have a popular president to campaign with them, and they start "showing their independence," known in other areas as "rats leaving a perceived sinking ship."

You think McCain would have been a dependable vote? He met with Cindy Sheehan, for goodness sake! Hagel? He has a full explanation ready to go on why he can't support anyone, because he was in Viet Nam or something.

I have sat through enough Senate debates to know that we have maybe 25 Senators who are dependable. The rest are RINOS, cowards, opportunists, weasels.

That is all I have to say on the subject, except for this. RINOS are far more powerful than they should be, and it is because they are secure in their elections. It's a shame, but that is the way things are.

"You are being incredibly naive about the Senate"

I have concluded you are a simpleton when it comes to what makes Washington, DC tick. As I said before, if you think you have to ask jerks like Chaffee, Snowe, and the rest for their blessing, then you've shown you are completely weak. Bush's approval is low because he is showing he's totally weak. He let Brown swing in the wind when neither Brown nor FEMA were at fault over Katrina--the Dems in NO were responsible and if Bush had any sense he would have said so and defended Brown. He ran from that fight. And he is running scared now.

If I believe your line, that the Republicans in the Senate are too weak to do anything even though they have a majority, then it appears the Republicans are finished.

I see you've convinced yourself--probably as a way of defending Bush--that it was hopeless anyway, so better to have picked unknown stealth candidates in the hope they might not be too bad.

IMO, it's Republicans like you that aid and abet the RINOs, they know they can do what they want and there will be no consequences.

Many have said that Bush is not into incrementalism. I think Supreme Court nominees is an exception to that rule.

He has nominated some very conservative appeals court judges but many were subject to filibuster. The Gang of 14 killed the nuclear option and left the fight for another day.

Because Bush has been weakened politically, it was less likely he would select a nominee who might be filibustered. We can only guess what he would have done if the filibuster had been nuked.