Thank you, Rep. Inglis.

It really is as simple as that: Rep. Wilson? You broke a House rule. Apologize.

Good on Bob Inglis. It has to be difficult to be a voice of reason in his party right now.

Good for Bob Inglis to be a voice of reason here. Although I imagine that he may not get a plum committee assignment in the House after this.

What's the over/under on how long it takes Inglis to cave to the leader of the Neo-Con Party and apologize for the sin of speaking the truth?

Hmmm. Guess there's still some moral and ethical compasses in South Carolina that haven't been broken beyond repair! Dare I say, gives me hope!?!

They do exist!!

i like the speeding car analogy, but, think christie's example more illustrative of how joe thinks it works.

#1 drive car down one way street and hit someone.
#2 pull rank on cop and get police escort to work.
#3 pay undisclosed secret settlement
#4 deny it ever happened

Is Bob Inglis determined to lose his primary?

Inglis has already attracted several extremely serious primary opponents next year, all running at him from the far right -- and since there is a 50% run-off requirement, having a split opposition won't save him.

Inglis has said and done a remarkable number of sane things over the last few years. He voted against Bush on the 2007 Iraq surge, and thinks that climate change is real and man-made and advocates a carbon tax to address it. He has crossed party lines to vote with Democrats on fuel-efficiency standards, banning torture, and expanding funding for HIV/AIDS. Despite opposing the stimulus legislation, when Governor Sanford was making noise about rejecting the federal funds, Inglis told him "for goodness sake, just take the money."

When Mark Sanford got caught hiking the Appalachian Trail, Inglis opined that it was a reminder that Republicans need to “lose the stinking rot of self-righteousness” and “to understand we are all in need of some grace.”

He called Glenn Beck a "fear-monger" and had the nerve to tell a town hall full of tea-baggers that they should "is turn that television off when he comes on."

His recent history has been full of such apostasy -- having the nerve to speak some common sense in a way that infuriates the right wing extremists in his party.

Unfortunately, Inglis' district is extremely right wing - Obama only won 37% - the more he says things like this, the greater chance that he will be ousted in his primary.

(Inglis shows all signs of becoming an updated version of another southern Republican Congressman -- John Buchanan, a Baptist minister who represented Alabama in the US House as a Republican from 1964 until 1980, when he was defeated in the primary. Like Inglis, Buchanan began to stray ever so slightly from the Republican culture wars, and was taken out in the primary. He went on to serve as chair of the Board of People for the American Way and to denounce the extremist takeover of his party.)

Inglis is way too conservative to be a Democrat (and a Democrat couldn't be elected in his district). He is too sane to be a Republican. Perhaps he would be more comfortable as an independent, but that seems unlikely. He has clearly decided that if he is going to be taken out in a primary, he is going to go down in flames and put up one hell of a fight for sanity in the process.

As an added bonus, here is Inglis's explanation of his fear-mongerer comment from an interview -- one that wouldn't be out of place on the comments section here:

That’s what Glenn Beck is all about. And Lou Dobbs. I’ve had the misfortune of listening to those shows a couple of times... I don’t listen often to Glenn Beck, but when I have, I’ve come away just so disappointed with the negativity… the ‘We’ve just gone to pot as a country,’ and ‘All is lost’ and ‘There is no hope.’ It’s not consistent with the America that I know. The America I know was founded by people who took tiny boats across a big ocean, and pushed west in tiny wagons, and landed on the moon. That’s the America I heard on the streets of Boiling Springs... The America that Glenn Beck seems to see is a place where we all should be fearful, thinking that our best days are behind us. It sure does sell soap, but it sure does a disservice to America... If Walter Cronkite said something like Glenn Beck said recently on the air, about the president being a racist, Cronkite would’ve been fired on the spot. But I guess the executives of these cable news shows are more enamored with the profits that come from selling this negative message than they are with undermining the faith of people in this wonderful constitutional republic.”

Bless you, Rep. Inglis. The Republican Guide for Decorum and Civility Rules in the House of Representatives is very explicit about what is not tolerated (calling the President a liar or otherwise questioning his honesty). It's about time someone pulled out the rule book and said what is supposed to be the penalty for such deplorable behavior.