That’s the nickname I’ve given the woman in New Hampshire who used her own child as a puppet to launch what she thought were gotcha questions at Rick Perry. (“Ask him about evolution. Ask him why he hates science.”) This delightful woman’s name is Kristin Bunce, which is mentioned in exactly one story on the incident, a blog post on the NYT site. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t scrub that part. But now we’ve got a name, so let’s see what we can dig up about the esteemed Ms. Bunce, shall we?

Here’s her Facebook page. Here she is with her kids. In front of the Louvre.

She hasn’t used her daughter as a political prop yet, though. Just her son. Too bad she didn’t make the lil’ fella ask, “Pourquoi détestez-vous la science?”

Here’s what she has listed on Facebook under “Education and Work”:

Grad School

John F. Kennedy School of Government
Class of 1996 · MPP

The University of Texas at Austin
MA Government

College

Wellesley College
Class of 1990

High School

Chatham High School
Class of 1996

Pretty sure that last one is supposed to be 1986. And I’m told the fact that she went to UT might explain why she hates Perry.

JWF has done some of the digging the MSM doesn’t care to do, and he discovered that she’s listed as an editor in the summer 2007 edition of the Harvard Law & Policy Review. And here’s her wedding announcement from the Sept. 3, 2000 edition of the New York Times:

WEDDINGS; Marna Bunce, Silas Beane III

Marna Kristin Bunce, the daughter of Dr. Marna Louise Crim of Monroe, Ga., and Roy Karl Bunce of Longmeadow, Mass., was married yesterday to Dr. Silas Robert Beane III, the son of Rosa and Mr. Beane Jr. of Far Hills, N.J. The bride’s father, a United Church of Christ minister, officiated at Stanley Congregational Church in Chatham, N.J.

Mrs. Beane, 32, is a senior policy adviser in Seattle for the United States Education Department. She graduated from Wellesley College. She received a master’s degree in government from the University of Texas and a master’s in public policy from Harvard. Her father is the director of development at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. Her mother is the reading specialist at the Monroe Elementary School.

Impressive! Working at the Department of Education must have taught her how to exploit children for political ends.

Google Books lists a Kristin Bunce from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as the author of a 1996 policy analysis exercise titled, “Americans are turned off by television coverage of politics and public policy: how CBS News can present complex issues and increase their audience.” And we’ve now seen her answer: push your children in front of politicians and make them ask, “Why do you hate science?”

So that gives us some idea of where Ms. Bunce is coming from. She certainly isn’t some dumb plumber asking why the government won’t let her keep more of the money she’s earned that’s rightfully theirs. She’s not some peasant. She’s a well-connected, impeccably credentialed bureaucrat who isn’t afraid to hide behind her own children to attack people she doesn’t like.

And why do we need to know more about her, you ask? That’s a good question. Well, why did we need to know more about Joe Wurzelbacher? Why did we need to know about his tax lien and lack of a plumbing license and the rest? All he did was ask a question about taxes and he was pilloried for it. Isn’t that the new standard for any citizen who dares to ask questions of prominent people? Isn’t that what they get for inconveniencing those in power? If not, why not?

P.S. The press considered it very, very important that Joe the Plumber’s first name is actually Samuel. How interesting, then, that Marna Kristin Bunce goes by her middle name too. Why is she lying? What is she hiding?