After four years, the smear campaign against Mary Knott Perkins is still the talk of East Texas. There is a wince in her voice as she tells the story of how she lost her seat on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) to Donna Ballard, a Christian conservative firebrand.  "I'm a very traditional person," says Perkins, a Democrat and grandmother of seven. "I had never even been called a liberal. I'm a Methodist. But I was called an atheist and a feminist. I was accused of advocating masturbation for five year olds. My good name was sullied all over my district. Anybody going into politics today is going to face it."