Obviously, the price of Katrina is high–in human and financial terms. But, the devastation may have caused one positive development: our friends from OMB Watch report that the Republicans appear to have backed off their intention to vote on the repeal of the estate tax.

Mind you, this didn’t come because Republicans saw the light and felt remorse about handing the very rich yet another chunck of the the U.S. Treasury. Nope. This is about politics: The chazer caucus saw a public relations disaster coming (thanks in part to the organizing done by OMB Watch and others). After all, with the cost of Katrina (rebuilding and taking care of the survivors) now estimated to be north of $200 billion, the idea of the very rich making off with up to ONE trillion dollars over the next ten years probably wouldn’t have played well in public.

But, they will be back.