These same zeros in the Senate were there when, this time last year, the big Bush/Republican theme was "It's all about the judges! Let's give 'em hell!"
If the real theme then, as now, was "Our party is principle-free, stands for nothing except acquiring power and spending money, is populated with weak sisters and I don't even have the guts to fight Arlen Specter or Jim Jeffords" then it would have been the American thing to do to admit it.
They lie, they backtrack, they obfuscate - on any number of things, not just judges. What they don't do is deliver on the many promises, even after seizing all the reins of power.
Bush can't beg his base to support Specter, then use Specter as the excuse for why he can't/won't do what he promised to do.