Rep. Bob Inglis has weighed in on a wide variety of issues since his landslide loss in June. Inglis doesn't pull punches at GOP

Three months after a humbling runoff defeat, South Carolina Republican Rep. Bob Inglis is emerging as one of his party’s sharpest critics.

In print and broadcast interviews ranging from the New York Daily News to CNN, and from NPR to the liberal Mother Jones magazine, Inglis has lamented what he sees as the growing influence of an intolerant form of conservatism within the GOP — and the unwillingness of party leaders to take on what he calls the “hot microphones” that give voice to it.


To his critics, it’s a case of sour grapes, a validation of their complaints that he had gone wobbly on conservative principles over the years. Inglis contends that he’s simply speaking some unpleasant truths.

“I’ve been saying these things all along, I guess. And that’s been the problem,” he told POLITICO in an interview. “It does not fit the times to speak out.”

Inglis has weighed in on a wide variety of issues since his landslide 71 percent to 29 percent June runoff loss, taking positions that put him at odds with numerous GOP constituencies.

“The people who are running around out front to lead the fearful crowd where they’re already going, I really don’t know how they sleep at night,” Inglis told The Greenville News in July, discussing support in some quarters of the party for the controversial Arizona immigration law. “You win a seat, but you’ve given away your soul.”

To Mother Jones, Inglis asserted that some in the party had tried to demagogue President Barack Obama, noting accusations last year that the health care overhaul included “death panels” and that the president was a “socialist” and the questions raised about his citizenship. He described one experience before an audience as “frightening” and observed that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “seems to think that ignorance is strength.”

“What we are seeing these days is so much misleading. They say one outlandish thing after another about the president, and that gives license to others to say even worse things,” he told the Daily News.

Inglis has also criticized what he sees as anti-Semitic sentiment in some corners of the conservative movement. More recently, he accused House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of trying to “politicize” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For Inglis, who lost the GOP nomination to Spartanburg County Solicitor Trey Gowdy, the media tour is a coda to a six-term career in the House that included an eight-year hiatus between 1999 and 2005. It was in his second House tour of duty that the South Carolina Republican softened the sharper-edged conservatism that marked his service during the Clinton era.

Inglis acknowledged the differences between “Inglis 2.0”— his service from 2005 to 2010 — and “Inglis 1.0.” This time around, he spoke out against GOP skeptics of climate change and, during the heat of the August town halls last year, urged attendees at one of his forums to “turn off” conservative cable television host Glenn Beck.

Inglis also cast some high-profile votes against the wishes of his party leaders, opposing the military surge in Iraq and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“He wants his career to mean something, and this is his way to do that,” former South Carolina GOP Chairman Barry Wynn, an Inglis friend and supporter of 25 years, said of Inglis’s criticisms. “He certainly was a different congressman. He wanted to be more collaborative and cooperative, someone that’s taking on problems, and he feels that he still has a voice as a member of Congress.”

“He’s unencumbered, and he doesn’t care what the party says because he’s not a party guy,” said Chip Felkel, a GOP consultant in the state. “He can say what he wants. Why not, I guess.”

The congressman’s loss was not entirely unexpected. In 2008, environmental engineer Charles Jeter won a revealing 33 percent against the incumbent in the GOP primary after casting Inglis as weak-kneed on climate issues.

Gowdy, for his part, also slammed Inglis as insufficiently conservative — a silver bullet in a heavily Republican, socially conservative seat like the upstate-based 4th District — running a TV ad vowing that, “It’s time for a representative in Washington who won’t change, a leader who won’t side with Democrats on a bailout, global warming, a troop surge or health care.”

So far, South Carolina Republicans have been content to let Inglis proceed on his valedictory tour without much interference or response.

“Anytime you want to poke your finger in the eye of the Republican Party, I guess you can do that,” said Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina GOP.

Inglis spokesman Price Atkinson said the congressman still receives several invitations for interviews each week.

“He wants to have a national discussion about solutions,” said Atkinson, who has worked for Inglis for more than five years. “He’s solutions-oriented.”

Inglis said he was eyeing several employment options after he leaves Congress in January — but didn’t quite close the door on the idea that he might one day return to politics.

“I don’t exactly see a path back yet, but I guess you never say never,” he said.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the time period in which Bob Inglis was away from Congress. His six-year hiatus took place from 1999 to 2005.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Dianna Heitz @ 09/14/2010 11:02 AM CORRECTION: The original version of this story misstated the time period in which Bob Inglis was away from Congress. His six-year hiatus took place from 1999 to 2005.