blicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.ioned, larry, the first debate happening in about a month. the earliest ever. does that mean that is the kickoff to the real campaign season when voters are now tuned in and paying attention? what is it going to mean? guest: we don't really start at labor day. in the old days, decades and decades ago. that honestly was the kickoff. people would save lots of things for labor day and the few months or weeks that followed labor day. that has long since faded. john f. kennedy announced the presidency on january 2, 1960. the year he ran. think of that. now they announce years before they are running or we know they are running even if they have not formally announced. we have a permanent campaign on both sides. stephen the third parties an independents get into that mode as well. i would say yes. this is so unprecedented to have a debate between the presidential candidates in june. start in september. the kennedy-nixon debates were in september and october. they had more n they were interes

e blican woman senator.t: for me, learning about these two women, they were accomplished in your own right before they even came to the utely. rebecca felton was known as." the grand old lady of inpartly because her husband had beenoffice, but she had been very active in the women'swell-known. unfortunately she had also been very active in anti-civil-rights efforts, that is the darker side ry. but well-known in georgia. same with gladys pyle mentioned, she had been in state and won the popular vote, but she didn't have the necessary ao one of her male competitors. must have been infuriating, think. but she came intoinsenator lester hunt entered the senate office wiednu many victims of senator joseph mccarthy's baseless charges. one of them was lester hunt." betty: that is a sad story. a tragic moment in senate history. lester hunt had been a popular senator. a popular democratic senator from the state of wyoming, which was in itself a because wyoming was mostly a republican senator at that -- republican stat