But you could have made similar arguments about Iraq. And you could also make similar arguments about the suicidal effects of tax cuts for the rich, massive military spending and various other initiatives that Bush has been responsible for.

Bush is not a rational man. Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest don't seem to be rational either. And the GOP crew - Delay, Frist, Team Abramoff and pretty much all of the rats in that sinking ship - have proven that not only are they not rational people, but they won't let nothing get in the way of power and money. Not ethics, not religion, and certainly not the possibility of a disaster of their own making. Even if it eventually falls on them from a great height.

They don't believe in disasters because they don't believe the rules apply to them. Sweat shops, drug cartels, prostitution rackets, criminal diversion of funds into their own pockets as they bleat about supporting the troops while making sure those troops are badly trained and poorly supplied - it's all the same to them. They cover it up with a thin veneer of deep south piety so they can sell their snake oil to the stupid, but behind that there's one of the nastiest and most foetid political brews to appear in the West since the end of WWII.

So I don't see any evidence that Bush cares all that much if everything falls apart. It won't affect him personally, it won't affect his immediate circle, and if he can use it as an excuse to finally kill off the constitution and make himself Supreme Preznit of Everything and Everybody in the Whole World Forever - that wouldn't be a bad thing in BushVille. (At least until he gets bored and decides to go fishing again.)

Remember - this guy doesn't care about anything except his own image. Substantial parts of New Orleans are still ruined and uninhabitable, but there's no sign he's interested any more. A president who can lose a city without missing any sleep isn't going to miss any sleep over the economy tanking, rationing being introduced and elections that he knows are sure to go badly being postponed indefinitely.