Senate Republican reformers left Washington for their Thanksgiving recess furious with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for allowing the Defense Department appropriations bill to pass by voice vote this month without challenging any of its earmarks -- including one helping re-elect Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Landrieu is one of the rare Democratic senators seriously challenged in a difficult 2008 for Republicans. Her earmark would reduce an estimated $3 billion to $4 billion shortfall in post-Hurricane Katrina housing rebuilding. The Road Home program needs money because it defied the Bush administration and offered huge federal wind damage payouts for homeowners holding federal insurance that was intended to cover only flooding.

Anti-earmark Republicans say the Road Home is really Landrieu's ''Road to Re-election.'' They wanted to kill it by using the parliamentary procedure that had been employed to separate veterans funding from a pork-laden appropriations bill.