According to the recently established Oval Office Writers, LLC, Marc Thiessen, who's partnering with one Peter Schweizer,
served as Chief Speechwriter to President George W. Bush, and a member of the White House Senior Staff. He was the lead writer on the President’s 2007 and 2008 State of the Union addresses, helping the President navigate his first appearances before a Democratic Congress.
He worked closely with the President on hundreds of
speeches – including remarks for his 2004 presidential campaign and televised addresses from the Oval Office. Over five years at the White House, Marc helped the President craft his public arguments on issues ranging from defense and national security, to energy, health care, taxes, trade, and economic policy.
So, he's either got a vested interest or is trying to drum up some business by penning controversial op-eds.
At this point, my money's on the former, given the many signs that Marc Thiessen is a neo-con true believer. By his own account, he's been a policy maven since 1994.
Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Marc spent more than six years on Capitol Hill as spokesman and senior policy advisor to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC) from 1995-2001. He organized Congressional hearings, designed legislative and communications strategies all of the Chairman’s major policy initiatives, and represented the Committee before U.S. and foreign news organizations.
Marc was also press secretary for the 1994 Huffington for Senate campaign in California. He worked for former Congressman Vin Weber (R-MN) at the think tank Empower America, and spent his first five years in Washington at Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, the public affairs firm then headed by Republican strategist Charlie Black.
Ah, from Richard Nixon's acolytes to Jesse Helms' operation. Now there's a pedigree to envy. Stone, you'll remember, popped up briefly in the McCain camp in 2008 until his history in 2000 became an embarrassment.
Most recently, Thiessen has assisted George W. Bush with the writing of A Charge Kept: The Record of the Bush Presidency 2001 - 2009 , the latest installment of the Bush autobiography (Morgan James Publishing, April, 2009), so perhaps the op-eds are a sort of promotional effort and shouldn't be taken quite as seriously as they seem to be, even if they are showing up all over the country.
Back in February, he produced this lengthy caution for the Los Angeles Times:
Opinion
Watch out for Al Qaeda
It wants to target America's economy, and it wants to prove it can defeat us.
By Marc A. Thiessen
February 15, 2009
We're bombarded with bad news -- the credit markets could freeze, millions more could lose their jobs, and today's recession could turn into a depression. But the danger we aren't hearing about could outweigh them all: the increased risk of a catastrophic terrorist attack.
A careful study of Osama bin Laden's videos, letters and Internet statements makes clear that Al Qaeda's goal is more than to terrorize Americans or to drive us out of the Middle East. Bin Laden believes that Al Qaeda can bring about the economic collapse of the United States -- and to achieve this goal, he has adopted a strategy of targeting America's financial centers and economic infrastructure.
Which, in its consistency with GWB pronouncements might give a clue about who crafted the argument that our "enemy's" agenda ought not only be credited, but should define the American response. And yet, he's arguing this week that torture was a success and (presumably) the threat was beaten back.
But, what's most revealing about this week's offering is the following:
Critics claim that enhanced techniques do not produce good intelligence because people will say anything to get the techniques to stop. But the memos note that, "as Abu Zubaydah himself explained with respect to enhanced techniques, 'brothers who are captured and interrogated are permitted by Allah to provide information when they believe they have reached the limit of their ability to withhold it in the face of psychological and physical hardship." In other words, the terrorists are called by their faith to resist as far as they can -- and once they have done so, they are free to tell everything they know. This is because of their belief that "Islam will ultimately dominate the world and that this victory is inevitable." The job of the interrogator is to safely help the terrorist do his duty to Allah, so he then feels liberated to speak freely.
in that it suggests the agents of torture, along with the "Principals" in the White House, were on a mission. Indeed, the references to the (suspected) terrorists being "liberated" takes on additional significance when we consider Thiessen's reaction in the National Review to the suffering of Pope John Paul:
We need his example in this world filled with suffering. We need the lesson he is teaching us: that suffering is not useless; that it can have meaning, and salvific power. As John Paul wrote in his 1984 encyclical On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, once this meaning and power are discovered, suffering actually becomes "a source of joy" because "faith in sharing the suffering of Christ brings with it the interior certainty that the suffering person...is serving, like Christ, the salvation of his brothers and sisters. Therefore he is carrying out an irreplaceable service."
Suffering is good. Suffering, if properly understood, becomes a source of joy--i.e. it's possible to argue that the partial execution of detainees isn't just an act of liberation, but a route towards their salvation.
I should note that I haven't been able to locate a complete biography for Thiessen. The Oval Office Writer's site, although it provides information on Schweizer's educational credentials, makes no mention of whence Marc A. Thiessen hails. So, it's difficult to know what to make of this:
A Tale of Two Bishops
by Marc Thiessen - January 28, 2009
Reprinted with permission from our good friends at InsideCatholic.com, the leading online journal of Catholic faith, culture, and politics.
It's 8 a.m. and the dingy apartment building is momentarily unguarded. A woman sweeping her doorway across the street cranes her neck to watch the American walking hurriedly toward the home of her infamous neighbor. I knock, keeping my back to the police camera hidden in the hallway. An elderly man – not the one I've come to see – answers the door, surprised to see a Western face. "It is not good that you have come," he says nervously, protectively. A moment of confusion – should I leave? As I' m about to turn away, a voice from inside the apartment instructs the man to let me in. He does so but tells me not to stay long.
....
His collar reminds me why: Fan is the Roman Catholic bishop of Shanghai and longtime deputy of the late, exiled Ignatius Pin-Mei Cardinal Kung, spiritual leader of China's eight to nine million underground Roman Catholics.
Is there a connection to his opposition to better relations with another Communist country? Or is it just that the promise of access to Cuban cigars is not enough?
Published Winter 1995
Hotel Bela Vista
Macau
For the two centuries before the British set foot in Asia, the Portuguese colony of Macau was Europe's gateway to China. But with the establishment of Hong Kong a short distance up the Chinese coast, Macau was eclipsed as a trading post and the colony was all but forgotten by its Portuguese masters. It became a haven for spies, arms merchants, gamblers and opium dealers, and a Siberia for second-rate Portuguese civil servants.
....
Central to the Portuguese revival is the recent restoration of the extraordinary Hotel Bela Vista. Located on Penha Hill, overlooking the captivating Praia Grande Bay, the Bela Vista (Portuguese for "beautiful view") is a spectacular Portuguese colonial mansion with a colorful history.
....
Of course, the highlight of the evening will be an after-dinner cigar, enjoyed with a selection from the Bela Vista's considerable cellar of excellent tawny and vintage Ports. We enjoyed a velvety bottle of vintage 1963 Krohn. The Bela Vista's humidor has a small, but high quality, selection of cigars, focusing principally on Cohibas and Davidoffs. Maitre d'hotel Alain Gomis says his dream is to build a cigar room supplied with nothing but the finest Ports and cigars.
Which raises the question, is Marc Alexander Thiessen a serious person or is he just one of those neo-colonialists looking for a comfortable billet?
George W. Bush's five visits to the Vatican would seem to suggest that his interest in being aligned with the a religious sovereign was sincere. But, for Marc Thiessen, the authoritarian style may just be a convenience. If he's even more of an opportunist than George W. Bush, we should not be surprised. And we certainly have no need of advice from the mouthpiece from a failed enterprise. One would hope that the Bill Kristol model had run its course.