Lentorama 2007: The Non-Canonized Catholic Person of the Day

Issue number one: today's person is John McLaughlin. After earning a Ph.D. from Columbia, McLaughlin was ordained as a priest and taught at a Jesuit high school in Connecticut.

Issue number two: In 1970, he asked for permission from the order to run for the US Senate in Rhode Island. His request was turned down, but he ran anyways, losing to the incumbent.

Issue number three: His friendship with Pat Buchanan led to an offer of a White House job as a speech writer for Nixon, but Jesuit rules forbade him from being in the society and holding a political job. Given his options, McLaughlin left the priesthood.

Issue number three, part two: For good measure he would then marry his campaign manager, Ann Dore; she would later serve as Reagan's last Secretary of Labor. They divorced in 1992, but he's remarried since.

Issue number four: McLaughlin took the reins of his signature show, The McLaughlin Group, in 1982. His panel was a mix of talking heads from both sides of the aisle, from Buchanan and Fred Barnes on the right to Eleanor Clift on the left.

Issue number five: His freewheeling style and creative use of language made the show an excellent target for satire, most notably on Saturday Night Live. McLaughlin himself appeared in one of these skits, playing the Grim Reaper.