Did Jeb Bush ease cruise ship contracts?

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Ca., who gets more political mileage than most from his Congressional Web site, has posted an open letter to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush asking about his role in lining up Carnival cruise ships as emergency Katrina housing, as hinted at by emails exchanged with J. Bush campaign donor and Carnival representative Ric Cooper. Rep. Waxman protests:

It now appears that the contracts will cost federal taxpayers almost $240,000 to provide temporary shelter for a family of five. At this price, the federal government could have built permanent homes for the families.

Doonesbury's fictional Uncle Duke notwithstanding, it appears the real-life residents of these cruise ships have been mainly police and other "first responders," with their families. FEMA has announced plans to move these families off the ships into other housing shortly, but there seem to be hitches, including a lawsuit to keep a non-Carnival ship, the Scotia Prince, serving residents of St. Bernard Parish. Waxman writes:

The Carnival Cruise Lines contract has turned out the be enormously expensive. Much of the expense is due to the design of the contract itself. Under this contract, the taxpayers are not reimbursing Carnival for the services it actually provides, but are compensating Carnival for both the revenues the company would have earned under normal operations and any additional expenses that the company incurs under the contract. This means that the taxpayer is responsible for paying for revenues the company would have received from its casino operations, liquor and drink sales, and on-shore excursions, even though these costs have nothing to do with the primary relief mission.

Sounds like new grist for the National Multi Housing Council from here.

[UPDATE 3/1/06: Here's the writeup from AP.]