Depends on the Catholic. Gingrich’s religion doesn’t much matter to me — he’s clearly just punching a ticket. He’s been married three times and each time switched to his bride’s religion, and each time treated it as if it were some big revelation. I don’t believe any of it. I don’t think he’s any more a Catholic today than he was a Southern Baptist four years ago.

On the other hand Santorum is also a Catholic. He’s kind of a weird Catholic, in that he seems to have adopted quite a few Protestant Fundamentalist traits that are actually at odds with Catholic dogma, but on paper, he’s Catholic. He very clearly does not fit your picture of “pragmatic, tolerant, and accustomed to ignoring … their books”. He recently accused Obama of having an agenda that wasn’t “Bible based” — as if Catholics ever much cared what the bible actually says.

Yeah — too bad that won’t be on offer for at least another decade.