I’ll never forget the first time I heard a person pitch Steve King for president in 2012. Mere weeks after the 2008 election in which Barack Obama was selected as president, we at The Journal took a look at what names Northwest Iowans might see in the ‘12 race. (Yes, some readers said, too much, too soon.) That involved asking  Republican Party chairpersons in many surrounding counties to list their top three picks for four years off. A county chairwoman was quick to put King’s name on her list.

With GOP people like Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney and others taking top mentions in early 2009, I forgot about King as a possible presidential candidate. The speculation was whether this would be the year King ran for governor, which he ultimately did not pursue.

Then last month, when interviewing Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for a profile piece on King, I asked about her perceived interest in the presidency. Before saying she had no intention to pursue the presidency, Bachmann first brought up King’s name as getting mention on Capitol Hill.

And last night, Dave Price of WHO, the Des Moines NBC affiliate, aired an interview with King in which the four-term congressman won’t rule out running for president. And why should he? King is beloved by the conservative base of the Republican Party, which in many states has a big role in pushing candidates toward victories in primaries and caucuses. King loves having a national voice on issues of importance, which doesn’t hurt his profile with the base. (Yeah, sure, he riles up Democrats, that’s a given.)

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who King has noted is essentially his twin, ran for president in 2008. Why shouldn’t Steve King?

I caught a three-minute snippet of the Rush Limbaugh radio show two days ago, which I’d forgotten until reading a new statement today by conservative Richard Viguerie. It seems I cite Vigeurie —  a less-government, Reagan-style conservative — a couple times annually here, and now he’s bemoaning the lack of national Republican leader. He cites what I heard, of Rush railing back against Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

I got Limbaugh mid-rant, so I didn’t know the genesis for his anger. But Steele made the assessment of Rush as an “entertainer” who can be “incendiary,” which didn’t sit well. Not to get too far into this, but Limbaugh talked about how he’s leading a conservative movement, which doesn’t mean he always lines up with the Republican Party. For what it’s worth, Steele apologized a bit later in the day, recognizing how good Limbaugh has been for the GOP.

Anyway, Viguerie says no one nationally is stepping up to lead the party. “The Rushification of the GOP is the natural and inevitable result of the fact that those who are supposed to provide leadership — Republican elected officials and party officers — are doing little to bring the party back,” he offers. And he said the GOP is begging for a leader as President Barack Obama moves the country closer to “socialism.”

Viguerie takes exception with the Feb. 24 speech of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who gave a “technocratic” response following Obama’s address to a joint session of Congresss. Jindal may have had some problems with an uneven speech, but he’s seen by many as the future of the party. For some Sarah Palin fits that category.

But if you don’t like Jindal or Palin – and while they command a lot of media coverage, they’re not in the Washington beltway — who does speak for the Republican Party today? Who is the person who should step up to fill what Viguerie calls a vacuum?

You might be thinking this morning about President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress, his first as president. You might be thinking about how astute Obama’s words were in laying out how America will survive the “day of reckoning” with the wracked economy, or relishing how much better Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal got it in his Republican response.

Me, I’m pondering the prospect that South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, 38, might give up a fairly safe congressional seat and run for another office.

As the Rapid City Journal reports, Democrat Herseth Sandlin is maybe a month from announcing if she’ll seek re-election or go for the South Dakota governor position in 2010. Also before voters will be a six-year U.S. Senate seat, but it’s less likely that she’d try to unseat well-regarded Republican John Thune, 48, who raised $310K in the last quarter of 2008 and who is sitting on $3.9 million in campaign cash.

The governor’s race will be wide open, since Republican Mike Rounds, 54,  has served two terms and can’t run again. With Herseth Sandlin being a new mom, being governor would provide a less-taxing “commute” than working in Washington and coming back to the state.

I’m working on a Nov. 30 piece on whether there’s a new high point for South Dakota persons impacting national public policy, considering that Tom Daschle has been tapped to be in Barack Obama’s cabinet, S.D. Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin will be chairwoman for the Blue Dog Coalition and with U.S. Sen. John Thune rising to the No.5 position of the GOP caucus in the Senate. In interviewing, I spoke with Lee Breard, executive director of the South Dakota Conservative Action Council, who said he sees  increasing power nationally for Herseth Sandlin. Additionally, Breard also predicts a growing identity for Thune, the guy he’s more aligned with politically.

Breard said Thune will only grow in influence as Republicans look for new leaders after poor electoral outcomes in 2008 and 2006. That will help Thune in a 2010 re-election bid, Breard said, and could gain Thune some traction as a possible presidential candidate. He said a more likely outcome is Thune as a vice presidential pick in 2012.

“I don’t know if (Thune) will be at the top of the ticket, but he will definitely be in the mix,” Breard said. “In presidential politics, the vice presidential candidate comes from the people who didn’t win in the primary. I do think we are leaning towards a Republican governor for 2012. My gut would tell me that that Republican governor is probably going to come from the South.”

Breard said Thune would be a good geographic counterbalance from the Midwest for a southern governor like Bobby Jindal (Louisiana), Charlie Crist (Florida) or Mark Sanford (South Carolina). Notice Breard did not mention Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the party’s vice presidential nominee earlier this year.

The day after the election, the Wall Street Journal and NBC had a Republican pollster hit up Republicans for their preferences in the, yes, 2012 presidential race. The poll found a lot of familiar names from this year, including leader Mitt Romney (33 percent), Mike Huckabee (20 percent) and Sarah Palin (18 percent).

Well, we at the Journal also probed the minds of Republicans for a Page 1 piece two days ago; in our case 11 GOP county chairpersons from Northwest Iowa. Our results were much the same, with the three high-profile Republicans above getting much mention for presidential runs, along with some national spotlight newcomers in Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan. Even our own area guy, Congressman Steve King, got a mention.

One thing that surprised me — not one of the 11 locals listed Jeb Bush in their Top 3 preferences for 2012. Bush fatigue must also be hitting Republicans, not just Democrats.