[Congressman Billybob]

The Yale Political Union was never intended to be either a "debating society" nor a "lecture series." I was an officer of the Union when John Kerry showed up for his first debate.

We had four political parties, then, the Party of the Left, the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the Party of the Right. Before each monthly meeting, the Board of Directors would put before all four parties a proposition on which they would take a position. Then, it would invite a leading national speaker on that subject, and the parties would choose two debaters each for an Oxford-style debate on that subject.

The point of all this was not mere words. Instead, it was to get the House to vote in favor of your position at the end of the evening. The Union then was roughly divided in half between liberal and conservative, with the two largest parties being the Liberals and the Conservatives.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "60 Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong"

[syriacus]

The Yale Political Union was never intended to be either a "debating society" nor a "lecture series."

Thanks for the information about the lecturers already having been invited to the Union.

I must have misunderstood the article, (which was from the Yale website), which seemed to say Kerry extinguished debate.

As president, Kerry officially extinguished debate during the 1960s, transforming the Union into a lecture series.