Earlier this year, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who was named in the DC Madam prostitution scandal, co-sponsored the Marriage Protection Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to declare that marriage “shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.” Now, “as he seeks to shore up his bona fides with conservative voters,” Vitter has introduced legislation slashing funding for family planning services:

The Louisiana senator has introduced an amendment to the omnibus spending bill before the Senate to drastically cut funding for family planning programs. Vitter’s amendment states that “none of the funds appropriated under this Act shall be made available to Planned Parenthood for any purpose under title X of the Public Health Service Act.”

As the Washington Post observed, Vitter may be trying to outflank his potential primary opponent, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. RH Reality Check has more.

As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and 30 other House Republicans are introducing a bill “chronicling the success of the troop surge in Iraq and warning the new Commander-in-Chief that if he changes strategy, he takes ownership of whatever happens on his watch.” On MSNBC this afternoon, host Norah O’Donnell pointed out that there are still more than 100,000 troops in Iraq and asked King if it was “premature” to declare essentially “Mission Accomplished II.” King insisted he was declaring “definable victory” — but not “Mission Accomplished.” Watch it:

The resolution is a naked attempt to pin George Bush’s failed Iraq policy on President Obama. Of course, many Republican leaders, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have vocally supported Obama’s plans to withdraw combat troops in 19 months and finally bring the Iraq war to an end.

Transcript: Read more

In an interview with ThinkProgress yesterday, Gov. Howard Dean laid out the principles that he thinks should guide the health care reform debate. Dean argued against a single-payer system, against an individual mandate, and for extending free health care to all Americans under the age of 25.

The former DNC Chairman advocated building upon the existing employer-based health care system by giving Americans the choice of keeping their existing insurance plan or enrolling in a new public option. “People hate the health care system, but they love their own doctor and they pretty much like the care they get,” he explained. “So what you cannot do is create some system that is going to scare people.”

Dean — who had expressed interest to the Obama White House in becoming HHS Secretary — argued that free choice and competition should be the cornerstones of health reform. “The brilliance of Barack Obama’s plan on the campaign trail was a) no one has to change if they like what they’ve got and b) if you want to, you could essentially buy into Medicare,” Dean said. If Obama enacts health reform that contains a public plan option, Dean predicted that Americans will choose it:

The American people will preferentially choose Medicare, but not all of them will choose Medicare. So we will have a hybrid system. Many more people will be in a public sector because it will probably be better for them. But they will only be in the public sector if they want to be, and they can get out of the public sector if they choose to try something different later on. That seems fair to me. I don’t think we should impose a single payer on everybody, but I do think we should give Americans the choice of having one if they like it. If it works for them, that’s what they’ll choose; if it doesn’t work for them, they’ll choose the private sector. But I don’t buy that the private sector has a right to compete and be more inefficient. I don’t think anybody has a right to serve people worse than somebody else just because they’re private sector.

Watch it:

On Thursday, the White House will convene a health care summit that will “include members of Congress and representatives of the health care and insurance industries.” Single-payer advocate Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is expected to attend. While Obama is busy rallying support for his health care agenda, a conservative patients rights group announced that it is mounting a $20 million misinformation campaign to stop it.

After months of ignoring congressional subpoenas to testify, Karl Rove and Harriet Miers have apparently agreed to discuss the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys with the House Judiciary Committee, the Committee announced this evening. Rove and Miers will submit transcribed depositions under penalty of perjury, and the Committee has reserved the right to have public testimony from the two former Bush aides. The agreement also states that invocations of official privileges must be significantly limited. Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) made the following statement:

I have long said that I would see this matter through to the end and am encouraged that we have finally broken through the Bush Administration’s claims of absolute immunity. This is a victory for the separation of powers and congressional oversight. It is also a vindication of the search for truth. I am determined to have it known whether U.S. Attorneys in the Department of Justice were fired for political reasons, and if so, by whom.

In January, Rove told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that he had no intention of appearing before Congress for his February subpoena date. “Now Mr. Rove, if you need a place to hide out, we have it here at ‘The Factor,’” O’Reilly offered. “We have all kinds of tunnels and places we can put you.”