Congresswoman Mary Bono, or Bono-Mack as she is now known, is running against a Murrieta school teacher named Paul Clay and a retired Air Force colonel from Palm Desert who flew fighter jets in Vietnam named David E. Hunsicker. I can't find photo's for either.

Hunsicker, 69, of Palm Desert is your typical socialist, spouting rhetoric like,

"I cannot sit back and watch my Constitution being compromised as it is," he said.

"This country, economically, cannot afford not to have national health care," he said.

The huge amounts of federal spending going to the military must change, Hunsicker said.

"How big is al-Qaida? How many airplanes, bombs and tanks do they have?" he said. "We play this bogeyman to be so much bigger than it is in reality. We've made Iran the enemy. We've tried to force super-capitalism on Iraq."

"Immigrants are really here to serve the United States," he said.

The Bush administration has focused on privatization, deregulation and the cutting of social programs, Hunsicker said.

"Call it super-capitalism or corporate fascism; it's the same thing," he said.

To me, it sonds like Hunsicker's main issues include socialized health care, abandoning our allies in the struggle for freedom in Iraq, cutting funding for our military, and holding California businesses hostage to environmental extremists.

Bono-Mack's other opponent seems slightly less far-left at first glance, at least as far as rhetoric.

Paul Clay, 49, of Murrieta teaches in the Perris Union High School District.

Clay said he was looking for someone to follow, but decided to run himself when no Democratic congressional candidates had emerged. Clay also calls for ending U.S. involvement in Iraq.

"There were never weapons of mass destruction,"

But a quick visit to his website uncovers "cut-and-run" gems like these:

"The administration and their supportive political pundits have claimed that this war is as important to the future of America as was World War II. This is simply not the case. If we leave tomorrow the world as we know it will not end."

More Americans will continue to suffer and die as a result of our government's attempt to "Vietnamize" this war. The pity is that we have to wait until after the election to pull our forces out.

This war is dividing our nation as no other event since the Vietnam War. As long as this war continues, the wedge will continue to widen. Ending the war will be the only way to heal our nation. For this reason we need to immediately withdraw our forces.

Maybe those two have not heard that we have the momentum back in Iraq and that because of the support of brave members of Congress, like Mary Bono-Mack, we have a chance at victory and freedom for the people of Iraq.

Just this morning Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Multinational Forces in Iraq said the violence is down:

...just about every category, every trend that we watch, is down, roughly about 60 percent -- civilian deaths, numbers of attacks -- thankfully, and touch wood, our casualties down substantially as well.

And as we go into the new year, we clearly want to build on the momentum that has been achieved by our forces working closely together with Iraqi forces.

And they have had a surge going on this year as well, by the way. They've added well over 110,000 new Iraqi soldiers and police, and that has been very, very important in enabling much of the progress that has been received...

The 45th Congressional District is home to many of the military, guard and reserve personnel serving in Iraq, and I'm not sure Hunsicker and Clay's strategy of "clutching defeat from the jaws of victory" will fly with such a patriotic electorate.