GWB and Rove are smart guys...
I don't doubt that.
In fact, they are probably going to smart their way into being the minority party after the results of the '06 mid term election are in because they insist on demonestrating to their base that once they vote for them, they can go fly a kite. There opinion does not matter.
They did all they could to tick off their base after the '00 elections. This resulted in a higher turnout in '04 than in '00. So I guess they said, "In '00 we tried to tick off our base by lavishly funding the National Endowment of the Arts so "artists" could show pictures of Christ under elephant shit and all that did was increase the turnout in '04. Let us really show the contempt we hold them in now and in '06 our candidates will win in a landslide."
Well all good things must come to an end. If thy persist [and I believe that they are going to]their will be a landslise, only it will be in the Democrats favor. Their base will stay home while the Democrat base will go vote.
It is their choice.
Actually, had the Democrats nominated a decent middle of the road candidate, instead of a traitorous liberal flip-flop, their policies would have bitten them in the a$$ big time.