Carl Estabrook told a group of about 50 students and faculty that America’s government has not had a dumber group in Washington than Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney and Bush, referring to defense secretary Donald, national security adviser Condoleezza, vice president Dick and president George.

Estabrook, Green Party candidate for Illinois’ 15th Congressional District and history professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, spoke to a lively crowd in Room 2080 of the Life Sciences Building.

Estabrook discussed the inadequacy of Democratic and Republican politicians. His reasons for running for Congress dealt mainly with the similarities of the two parties.

“Republicans and Democrats are essentially small divisions of the same party. The Republicans and Democrats have a lock on the political system, and they agree on most issues,” said Estabrook.

Estabrook said “the door is not open” to third parties in Illinois, and Illinois is the second most difficult state to get a third party candidate on the ballot.

Estabrook had to get 5,000 signatures on a notarized sheet in order to get on the ballot, and wound up collecting 7,616.

Timothy Johnson is the Republican incumbent Estabrook is running against. Estabrook said, unlike Johnson’s, his campaign is based on issues, not money.

“Johnson used the better part of $2 million to win his last election,” Estabrook said.

Estabrook also said he is against the war on terrorism.

“One of the Green Party’s principles is non-violence,” Estabrook said. “These clowns in Washington are planning to kill Arabs come hell or high water.”

Finally, Estabrook discussed voting issues.

He said only one-third of the public votes in elections. Estabrook plans to get his votes from the two-thirds of the public who does not vote.

“If I obtain only one-quarter of the two-thirds of the people who normally do not vote, I will win in a landslide,” Estabrook said.