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-Revealing
History -Candidates Control the Debates -FEC and IRS Violations 
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What is the CPD?In 1988, the CPD seized control of the debates from the League of Women Voters, and it has sponsored every presidential debate since. The CPD claims to "provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners," and it purports to objectively determine who will participate in the debates and under what conditions. In reality, however, the CPD is a corporate-funded, candidate-controlled, bipartisan cartel that exists to strengthen the Republican and Democratic parties at the expense of voter education. Every four years, the CPD awards virtually absolute control of the presidential debates to the Republican and Democratic campaigns, resulting in uninspiring debate formats, the exclusion of popular non-major party candidates, and the avoidance of pressing national issues.The co-chairmen of the CPD, Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr. and Paul G. Kirk Jr, are the former heads of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee respectively. The honorary chairmen of the CPD are former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. The board members of the CPD ardently believe in the "two-party" system and are unabashedly contemptuous of third-party candidates. Framed on the wall of Frank Fahrenkopf's office, which is stocked with mementos of him and former President Ronald Reagan together, is the December 1983 issue of American Politics, and the cover article about him is titled "Managing and Building the Two-Party System." In 2002, then-CPD director Alan Simpson explained the CPD's responsibility, "The purpose of the commission, it seems to me, is to try to preserve the two-party system that works very well, and if you like the multiparty system, then go to Sri Lanka and India and Indonesia. I think it's obvious that independent candidates mess things up." The CPD has consented to virtually every joint request of the major party candidates. "The commission does what you tell them to do," said Scott Reed, chairman of Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. CPD directors have no incentive to challenge the demands of major party campaigns, and every incentive to submit to the demands of the major party campaigns. The CPD, therefore, is not "nonpartisan" but rather "bipartisan," ensuring that the presidential debates serve the Republican and Democratic parties instead of American voters. The 7 Major Problems with the CPD
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