"MARYLAND NOTEBOOK; Sarbanes-Rappaport Forum A Matter of Great Debate," The Washington Post, October 26, 2000 <p>The Washington Post <p>October 26, 2000, Thursday, Final Edition <p>SECTION: MONTGOMERY EXTRA; Pg. M12 <p>HEADLINE: MARYLAND NOTEBOOK; Sarbanes-Rappaport Forum A Matter of Great Debate <p>BYLINE: Lori Montgomery, Washington Post Staff Writer <p> When is a debate a debate? <p>Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D) may have redefined the term in last week's encounter with Republican challenger Paul H. Rappaport on Maryland Public Television. <p> In his opening statement, Sarbanes defused one of Rappaport's most potent points, the question of why Sarbanes has repeatedly refused invitations to debate Rappaport. "What are you afraid of?" Rappaport demanded. <p>Sarbanes calmly countered that he has agreed to three debates, the one Oct. 19 on public television and two others, which his campaign later identified as an event this Thursday at the Jewish Community Center in Rockville and another Saturday at the Timonium Holiday Inn sponsored by the Maryland NAACP. <p>In his closing statement, a startled Rappaport said he was glad that Sarbanes had changed his mind. <p>It now turns out, however, that neither of those events may technically be a debate. Rappaport insists they are merely joint appearances at which both candidates will take questions from the audience. And he points out that neither will be televised. <p>Sarbanes, he said, has turned down at least two invitations for televised debates from a station in Salisbury and from former representative and current NAACP national President Kweisi Mfume, who asked the candidates to appear this week on his Baltimore talk show, "The Bottom Line." <p>"He lied. He either intentionally misled people or he lied," Rappaport said in an interview Monday. "These are just forums, and nobody's going to see them except the people who are there." <p>Sarbanes's campaign manager, Mike Davis, said that the event in Rockville "is pretty close to a debate" and that the candidates have yet to receive information about the format in Timonium. As for the invitations from Mfume and Salisbury, Davis said, "We make decisions based on the senator's schedule." <p>"Look, Mr. Rappaport is free to try to get television people to come cover these debates" in Rockville and Timonium, Davis said. "If we did what Rappaport wanted, we'd be debating every other day."