AP National
Debate Dispute Reaches Congress
by JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The debate over debates spread from the presidential campaigns to Congress Wednesday, with Democrats saying Republicans were ducking a chance to discuss the issues.
House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt, in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he was ''disappointed'' that Hastert had declined an invitation from PBS's ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' for a debate among congressional leaders.
Gephardt, from Missouri, and Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota agreed to the proposed Oct. 15 debate, but Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., declined, said Rob Flynn, director of communications for The NewsHour.
The Bush and Gore campaigns are at odds over the format for presidential debates. Vice President Al Gore has agreed to a proposal by the Commission on Presidential Debates for three 90-minute debates aired by all the major networks. Texas Gov. George W. Bush says he will participate in only one, plus appearances on CNN and NBC talk shows that will be broadcast only by their parent networks.
Gephardt said that given Bush's rejection of the three debates sponsored by the commission, ''your refusal raises questions about whether the leaders of the Republican party really want any honest discussion of the issues this year.''
Hastert spokesman John Feehery said the proposed debate, coming right at the end of the legislative session and the beginning of the election campaign, didn't fit in the speaker's schedule.
He added that the ''Democratic leadership was looking at the electoral map and, seeing they are not going to take back the majority, looking for a Hail Mary play.''
In 1996 ''The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer'' hosted a debate in Williamsburg, Va., among Gephardt, Daschle, Lott and then Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
Flynn said The NewsHour hoped to stage the debate with other Republican congressional leaders. Rep. J.C. Watts, R-Okla., the fourth-ranked Republican in the House, said he'd be willing to appear with Daschle and Gephardt.
''I think we've got a good story to tell,'' Watts said. |
