They help moderate debate. Their role is to give voters a voice in elections that they may not get through the traditional parties.

The debate over the next nominee will do far more to form the battle lines for the '06 midterm elections than anything involving the Congressional leadership,

By all accounts the elections were free and fair.

This is Kaine's debate. It's Kaine's audience. It's probably Kaine's region, ... one of the most one-sided debates I've ever seen.

We've said all along that as soon as we figure out who's qualified, we'll debate those folks.

There were a lot of things that were fundamentals of politics here, but because there had not been free elections there no one there knew anything about them.