Republican Congressman Bob Inglis was defeated by a Tea Party-backed candidate earlier this summer. And now that he's leaving Congress, he enjoys sharing "confessions" of insane Tea Party stuff he's heard at rallies. For example: What's social security really about?

Ever since his June loss, liberal-minded reporters have flocked to Inglis for some candor regarding his own party's direction. Inglis, who represents South Carolina, has been clear: he blames his loss on a personal unwillingness to use anger-baiting right-wing buzzwords about Obama's socialism and birth certificate and hatred of America.

(Last year, for example, during the season of angry health care town halls, Inglis got a lot of attention for a video in which he told furious town hallers to turn off Glenn Beck, for Christ's sake. The crowd did not care for this suggestion!)

And so Mother Jones, in one of today's more delightful/terrifying reads, has gotten Inglis to share some of the spectacular nonsense he heard at Tea Party events. This, for example, is the actual truth about Social Security:

I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there's a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life's earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks. I have this look like, "What the heck are you talking about?" I'm trying to hide that look and look clueless. I figured clueless was better than argumentative. So they said, "You don't know this?! You are a member of Congress, and you don't know this?!" And I said, "Please forgive me. I'm just ignorant of these things." And then of course, it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff. And now you have the feeling of anti-Semitism here coming in, mixing in. Wow.

Silly Bob Inglis. They're just worried about budget deficits!

[Image via AP]