On Rick Santorum’s Piety: “Torquemada Was, in that Sense, a Model Catholic”

Writing at the New York Review of Books today (in a post that deserves a full read), Garry Wills offers what should be the final word on Santorum’s backward-facing faithiness :

Rick Santorum is a nice smiley fanatic. He does not believe in evolution or global warming or women in the workplace. He equates gay sex with bestiality (Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum). He equates contraception with the guillotine. Only a brain-dead party could think him a worthy presidential candidate. Yet he is praised by television pundits, night and day, for being “sincere” and “standing by what he believes.” He is the principled alternative to the evil Moderation of Mitt Romney and the evil Evil of Newt Gingrich. He is presented as a model Catholic. Torquemada was, in that sense, a model Catholic.