This is the third entry in my state-by-state guide to election 2008.

IL-14: Physicist and Businessman turned Congressman

Bill Foster is a renowned physicist who won a surprise upset victory to win Dennis Hastert's Congressional Seat. To me that is doubly a sweet victory. First off, we turned Hastert's seat blue. Second, we elected a scientist to Congress, something that can help offset the anti-science Republicans in Congress.

Bill Foster is one of the Democrats most targeted by the Greedy Oil Party and so is top of my defense list. Here is Bill Foster's latest ad:

Bill Foster has, in the short time he has been in Congress, been a strong advocate for our Veterans:
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Americans like to complain. Grassroots progressives, myself included, in particular like to complain. Sometimes I have seen the complaints become almost an obsession, to the detrement of actually getting things done. Nader is a perfect example of this. I have seen progressive apathy or even antipathy sink some of the most progressive and honest candidates you could ever imagine. This is the danger of being on the forefront of progress. You can get ahead of yourself, ahead of everything and wind up all alone.

Impeachment, Iraq and winning elections. Right now these really are about the most critical things. And these three things are what we really need to work hard at if we want to be a significant force in politics...and in society. I want to discuss some specific examples of people who really need our help and they deserve it because they are taking strong stands for impeachment and/or against the Iraq war. We need them...but they also need us. They need our time and our money to win so that they can fight for what we think is right.

In 2006 an amazing coalition of mainstream moderates and grassroots progressives created a tidal wave of change in Congress. Many have complained that we didn't get what we expected from our new Congress...but don't let the complaints get in the way of appreciating that what we did was amazing.

It was a damned good effort and I am proud to have been a part of it.
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