Plame, "blame game" or the Downing Street memos?

Remember Karl Rove and Valerie Plame? The Downing Street memos? Those stories have taken a back seat to Hurricane Katrina, and the GOP would like to keep it that way.

As Senate Republicans Wednesday killed a Democratic plan for an independent, 9/11 Commission-style investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, their colleagues in the House of Representatives were blocking Democratic efforts to learn more about the Bush administration's role in outing Valerie Plame and its efforts to "fix" pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

On party-line votes Wednesday, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and the House International Relations Committee blocked two resolutions that would have asked the Justice Department and the State Department to turn over documents related to the Plame leak. Republicans on the International Relations Committee also blocked two measures that would have sought documents related to pre-war intelligence on Iraq.