WWLD (What Would Lurch Do) ?

Let's say you're running for President. You need to have campaign staffers to work with all possible constituencies. Who would you pick to be your campaign religious advisor, given that you're oh so liberal? Off hand, I'd say some "concerned" padre with a talent for hand wringing, but not so wacky as to scare off the proles. Who did Lurch pick? A beauty named Mara Vanderslice:

Miss Vanderslice, 29, grew up Unitarian in Boulder, Colo., then attended Earlham College, a Quaker institution in Richmond, Ind.

She joined a college socialist group, majored in peace and global studies, and graduated in 1997.

They didn't have a "peace and global studies" major when I was a youth. I'll bet it's really intense!

After interning for a year at Sojourners, a liberal evangelical magazine in the District, she joined the Jubilee USA Network, a D.C.-based group that campaigns for Third World debt relief.

What Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, found especially problematic was Miss Vanderslice's presence at a violent December 2000 rally in Seattle against the International Monetary Fund and a similar protest in September 2002 in the District against the IMF and the World Bank.

In articles on the protests, the Boston Globe identified her as an organizer and the Denver Post quoted her plans to take part in civil disobedience in order to shut down the IMF meeting in the District.

"What you get here is a profile of a woman on the far left and whose commitment to Christian organizations is connected to the most left-wing groups in the United States," Mr. Donohue said.

"This choice either suggests an incredible naivete or a very nonchalant attitude" by the Kerry campaign, he said.

Hey, Lurch was a leader of the VVAW, claimed all American soldiers were war criminals, and personally negotiated with the North Vietnamese. He did his best to prop up the Sandanista goons in Nicaragua and is a reliable pal of leftist thugs everywhere. Mara sounds like Lurch's kind of girl!

Or she would be if Lurch wasn't running for President.

The campaign began to marginalize Miss Vanderslice when the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights mounted a public campaign against her, saying she spoke at a rally co-sponsored by the homosexual group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (Act-Up) and should be "working for Fidel Castro."

Even though she was giving interviews to USA Today earlier this month, Miss Vanderslice would not be talking to the press, said campaign spokeswoman Allison Dobson.

"It is extremely unfortunate and regretful that John Kerry's political opponents would attack a person of faith in this way," Ms. Dobson said.

Allison, maybe Mara leading a chorus of "What a Friend We have in Lenin" would turn it around!

More in the article including Lurch's "informal" religious advisor, wingnut Father Bobby Drinan.