WASHINGTON - President Bush's calls for fiscal responsibility received scant notice this week on Capitol Hill. Fellow Republicans had something bigger on their minds -- high prices for groceries and gasoline in an election year that is looking increasingly bleak for their party.

Both the House and Senate bucked his veto threats with lopsided votes to boost food stamps and farm subsidies. Those votes came after Congress ordered Bush to quit pouring oil into the nation's emergency reserves.

Republicans abandoned Bush just days after the party's third straight special election loss to Democrats of a long-held GOP seat. The three House districts, in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi, include rural farm areas.

"I think the fact that they've lost three House seats in a row, people are thinking, 'Gee, do I really want to stand with the president? It looks like this ship's going down,' " said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Despite Bush's strong opposition, 35 of the Senate's 49 Republicans voted Thursday with Democrats to pass and send to the White House a $290 billion farm bill that will increase food aid as well as subsidies for farmers. In the House, 100 Republicans voted the same way Wednesday.

Lawmakers also overwhelmingly voted to temporarily halt daily shipments of 70,000 barrels of oil to the nation's emergency reserve held in underground salt domes along the Gulf coast. It is a move that Democrats have sought for the past year to increase supplies available for consumers. The Senate sent that measure to the president Wednesday night without a single GOP objection.

In the farm bill, rising food costs put political pressure on lawmakers to boost money for food stamps and other nutrition programs. The bill's fate appeared bleak until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., forced farm-state negotiators to divert money from farm subsidies to food programs.

That brought the support of not only urban Democrats but also Republicans from all areas, many of whom are growing more nervous about their re-election prospects in November.