"We were prepared for a full-fledged debate, and weren't prepared for so many amendments to be restricted."

In Ms. Viswanathan's book, Opal, the heroine, encounters two girls having "a full-fledged debate over animal rights."

Aides said that while some exchanges had been videotaped so they could critique the senator's style, they had not yet gotten to staging full-fledged mock debates.

Using a procedural maneuver, China has largely evaded full-fledged debate on its human rights record in the last decade.

But there is nothing to prevent a full-fledged debate if the Government and the opposition leadership choose to have one.

Several newspapers and magazines opened their pages to a full-fledged debate, complete with angry letters, editorials, and articles with headlines like 'Are we ruled by clergy?'

Democrats want to offer as many as 20, saying the issue warrants a broad, full-fledged debate.

What is required to fuel it into a full-fledged public debate?

In one dramatic moment two weeks ago, Senator John C. Danforth thrust himself into the middle of the first full-fledged debate of AIDS in the Senate.

"The bottom line is, John Kerry is not going to be deterred from a full-fledged debate over how we will fight the most effective war on terror," Mr. Rubin said.