Look out Hyde Park

I read the New York Times piece on how the thrice-married middle-aged Republican like Newt Gingrich suddenly converted to become a Roman Catholic.

And like Masaccio in his post at Firedoglake yesterday I was drawn to this particular passage:

“As he got involved with the history, it blew his mind. There was just so much of it and I don’t think he had understood that before, that he really had a sense of the intellectual tradition behind it.”

Given his own history, and his self-proclaimed love of history I think I can imagine just what history Newt is inspired by:

Probably around January 897, Stephen VI ordered that the corpse of his predecessor Formosus be removed from its tomb and brought to the papal court for judgement. With the corpse propped up on a throne, a deacon was appointed to answer for the deceased pontiff. Formosus was accused of transmigrating sees in violation of canon law, of perjury, and of serving as a bishop while actually a layman. Eventually, the corpse was found guilty.

That's the kind of intellectual tradition Newt Gingrich can get behind.

I'm guessing Newt has a dream of sending backhoes to Hyde Park for FDR.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]