Quite a few letters like this:

So I am supposed to smile and vote for the repubs as they repubs make me a punk with their earmarks and big government because I don’t want to be made a punk by the dems with their earmarks and big government ?
I am staying home.
Jacob Fish

And yet, of course, though many bitter conservatives may do just that, the post-election analysis — assuming a big Democratic win — will be “rejection of the Iraq War,” push back against Bush’s war on civil liberties, blah, blah. Few will interpret the results to mean Republicans and the Bush White House disappointed the base by failing to hold the line on earmarks.