Peter Roskam the Republican candidate to replace Henry Hyde in the IL 6th congressional district is a pretty radical guy. Hyde himself is known to be about as far rightwing as you can get. But lil Petey climbs so far out on that bending radical rightwing limb that it just might snap off under him. Read on to find out just how loony he is and how you can help him finish well (as he likes to say) out of the race.

Last Monday Sept. 25th Roskam took a field trip to his old high school, Glenbard West to talk with a advanced placement government class according to the Wheaton Sun.

He started out by saying "he hadn't planned on becoming a candidate for the office before Hyde decided to retire". On the contrary Roskam's been trying to move up to the big time (the US Congress) for almost a decade. He challenged Judy Biggert in the 1998 primary in the 13th after Harris Fawell retired and lost. He then moved to Wheaton and waited for his former mentor Hyde to retire. One of his shortlived Repub competitors, the party cleared the field for him last year, for the nomination said he'd probably move to the 14th if he lost here.

These highschool kids evidently knew their stuff and their questions were generally good. One asked him about Iraq. Roskam's answer is "we're there now" and "I'd ask, 'What's up with the spending; what's up with the corruption' (in the Iraqi government)." No word on what's up with the endemic corruption in the Iraqi reconstuction by US companies.

Tammy Duckworth has said when she was at her base in Iraq (nicknamed "Mortaritaville" for the daily mortar barrages they suffered), the trailers she and the rest of the GIs lived in, thinsided aluminum jobs probably not much different than the ones the gov bought for Katrina victims, weren't surrounded by sandbags.

The reason they weren't is because unlike other wars the GIs were not just not allowed, but ordered not to fill their own sandbags even though they were surrounded by sand and brought their own bags with them. Now why is that you ask? Because Halliburton had the contract to fill those sandbags at .80 per bag. So for months on end, well into 2004, Halliburton tried to find Iraqis they could trust who wouldn't be murdered for working with Americans to work for $10 a day filling these bags. Duckworth would sleep in her trailer with her body armor wrapped around her head and her helmet propped against the wall on her bunk. She figured if shrapnel came flying through her trailer at least her head would be ok.

So Pete, I have to ask because you surely won't, what's up with that?

Eve Barkwill asked Roskam why he is against embryonic stem-cell research, when most people support it.

"Most Americans were for slavery," Roskam shot back.

Roskam went on to say that he was only against taxpayer subsidized stem-cell research.

Roskam added that private companies are free to do stem-cell research, but had more success with adult stem-cell research.

"If private companies don't want to invest in it, why should government?" he said.

Now this is just a baldfaced lie. Roskam is against any funding for embryonic stem cell research, public or private, because he believes it's a sin as bad as slavery. In the Illinois Senate he led an effort to outlaw it let alone provide state funding for it. A position by the way at odds with other Illinois Repub luminaries such as Judy Baar Topinka and Kirk Dillard.

Unlike Hyde who supports the assault weapons ban

he sides with the NRA and believes Americans ought to be allowed to own just about any gun made. Nobody needs an AK-47 to protect their home from intruders, you're more likely to kill someone in your own home or a neighbor with the firepower of those things. Asaault weapons are made to effectively shred a human target, they can go right through walls into your kid's bedroom and one will make a mess of a trophy buck too.

This guy, though ostensibly a Episcopalian is in reality a hardcore fundamentalist. He believes his positions on abortion (no exception for rape or incest) and embryonic stem cell research are inviolable. There is no room for compromise from him on these issues.

To him they are God's law and he believes in them as wholeheartedly as any abolitionist 160 years ago believed in ending slavery.

To equate stem cell research to slavery is a truly radical view and doesn't represent what the majority of people in the IL-06 want in their House rep.

The good news is the latest poll out today shows Duckworth up 43-38. It's a Zogby/Reuters poll so take it with a grain of salt and regardless the race isn't over yet.

If you'd like to help Tammy Duckworth win this race stop by her website to see how you can contribute. This is a tough race in a historically red district but if anyone can pull it off, she can.