Washington ? Both political parties are to blame for the impasse on confirming President Bush’s judicial nominees, says Arlen Specter, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“No one wants to back down and no one wants to lose face,” Specter said Thursday in his first news conference since disclosing he has Hodgkin’s disease.

Specter will initiate this year’s confirmation battles between Bush and the Democrats with a Tuesday hearing on the nominations of former Interior Department Solicitor William Myers, a nominee who was blocked last year, and a Thursday hearing on U.S. District Judge Terrance Boyle, who has been waiting for his confirmation hearing since the beginning of Bush’s presidency.

While he expects those nominees to undergo severe questioning from Democrats, Specter is certain the Republicans’ 10-8 advantage on the Judiciary Committee can win approval there, sending the nominations to the full Senate.

“When it comes to the floor, as you all know, it is another matter,” he said.

Specter said he had counted 58 votes for Myers, which mean he’s only two away from a filibuster-proof margin. Democrats have complained appeals courts need balance, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is considered the most liberal appeals court, Specter said.

“I think that William Myers would bring some balance to the 9th Circuit,” he said.

Republicans and Democrats have been fighting over judicial nominees for years. Democrats blocked Myers and nine other appeals court nominees through filibuster threats during the first Bush term, while allowing the Senate to confirm 204 of the president’s other nominees.

With a Senate comprised of 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and a Democrat-leaning independent, Democrats still have the 40 votes necessary to uphold a filibuster — and they have threatened to do so with nominees they don’t like.