Marc Thiessen at the New York Times?

Patrick Ruffini noted yesterday that the New York Times should pick Rush Limbaugh or "a comparable full spectrum heartland conservative" to replace William Kristol on the op-ed page. Ruffini also said that "The Times needs someone who is as far to the right, in as hard-edged and partisan a way, as Paul Krugman is to the left."

I haven't seen any news of Limbaugh's interest (yet), but if Steve Benen's post this morning is any indication, perhaps Marc Thiessen should throw his hat in the ring. Thiessen, who was a top speechwriter to President George W. Bush, is apparently generating the kind of white heat that the conservative punditocracy needs during this time of political opposition. As Benen notes:

Marc Thiessen, up until recently George W. Bush's chief speechwriter, has been on a roll lately. It's almost as if he perceives an opening for a new generation of outrageous right-wing commentators, and wants to stake his claim to the leadership.

Last week, Thiessen argued that if Barack Obama changes Bush's national-security apparatus in anyway, he'll invite domestic terrorism and will shoulder the blame for American deaths. Also last week, Thiessen argued in a print column that Obama "is already proving to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office."

Yesterday, Thiessen kept the madness going, praising the torture of Abu Zubaydah and heralding those Bush administration officials who did the torturing.

Sounds like the right man for the job, and you know he's getting to the netroots denizens when we see posts like this one, denouncing Thiessen, a former staffer for the late Senator Jesse Helms, as "an unneutered-pitbull."

Personally, Thiessen won my vote with his essay on Bush's conservative legacy:

... many conservatives who are angry with Mr. Bush today will take a better view of his presidency with the passage of time. While he took actions that dispirited some conservatives - from bailing out the auto industry to taking North Korea off of the list of state sponsors of terror - Mr. Bush did more to advance conservative priorities than any other president.

Mr. Bush enacted sweeping tax cuts. And he has the best record on judges of any Republican president - his appointments of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito will be judged favorably over time compared to Justices Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter and John Paul Stevens (all put on the high court by Republican presidents). Mr. Bush enacted free-trade agreements with 17 nations, more than any president in history. He created Health Savings Accounts - the most important free-market health-care reform in a generation. And he defeated Democratic efforts to use the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip) to nationalize health care.

Mr. Bush won a Supreme Court ruling declaring school vouchers constitutional and enacted the nation's first school-choice program in the District of Columbia. He has been the most pro-life president in history, securing passage of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. He refused to fund the destruction of human embryos for research -- and was vindicated by the scientific breakthroughs that followed.

Mr. Bush increased defense spending by nearly 73%, the largest increase since the Truman administration. He unsigned the International Criminal Court treaty, withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and fulfilled Ronald Reagan's promise to deploy defenses against ballistic missiles. This is a conservative record without parallel.

In his final months, Mr. Bush confronted a challenge Truman never faced - a massive financial crisis. It is hard for many Americans to appreciate the magnitude of the economic collapse the president averted. But history will show that Mr. Bush's actions in the fall of 2008 rescued our economy and saved our financial system.

I don't know if Rush Limbaugh's going to warm up to that argument, but it'll certainly outrage the screaming weanies of the hardline left's nihilist netroots.