Gravel plans own simultaneous debate

Mike Gravel didn't get an invite to tonight's Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia, but he and his supporters aren't taking the snub sitting down.

Debate sponsor MSNBC took Gravel, the former US senator from Alaska, off the debate list because he barely registering in the polls and in fund-raising.

So Gravel plans to be across the street from the debate site at Drexel University to answer the same questions in real time on his own webcast (Gravel2008.us/LIVEDEBATE).

"Corporate censorship has taken over. I have been excluded unfairly," Gravel says on his campaign website. "I won't have it."

In previous debates, Gravel has aggressively advocated a withdrawal from Iraq and has been harshly critical of Hillary Clinton in particular.

Gregory Chase, a Gravel supporter from New Hampshire, bought an ad published in today's New York Times and three New Hampshire newspapers also protesting the senator's exclusion. To get Gravel in, Chase even offered to buy $1 million in advertising from NBC, MSNBC's parent, or just pay the sum directly.

"I would like Senator Gravel's ideas to be heard," Chase says in the ad. "Your company is censoring a multi-term United States senator, a veteran, and a patriot."