Dunno if you were being sarcastic or not, but your thought was also my first gut-reaction.
Would more Republicans have been able to win/retain their seats if Bush had let Rummie go awhile before the election? It seems like the talking heads are saying that Iraq was the reason a lot of prominent Republicans lost.
Not that I believe everything the talking heads say, but we really lost more seats than all but the democrats thought we would.
Bush said he didn't want to make it political. Well the voters made it political, and Bush lost us the house and senate most likely.