Citing reports in the Washington Post and New York Times that Kerry had raised more money from paid lobbyists than any other senator in the past 15 years, Dean said the Massachusetts lawmaker was no better than Bush in that respect.

"We are not going to beat George Bush by nominating someone who is the handmaiden of special interests, " Dean told hundreds of cheering supporters at a rally in Tucson.

Kerry told reporters he had taken no money from organized groups -- only from individuals. "The only people that have contributed to my campaigns to the United States Senate are individual Americans. Now are some of those individual Americans lobbyists? Yeah, sure," Kerry said.

The Washington Post said Kerry had accepted $640,000 from lobbyists, many of them representing the telecommunications and financial services industries that had business before committees Kerry sat on.

Kerry responded: "They haven't gotten anything for it. Those guys have never, ever, ever gotten anything."

... Tauzin telephoned Valenti with his decision late Thursday night after intense salary negotiations over recent days. The 12-term lawmaker is now considering an offer from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the trade group that represents drug giants such as Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co.

Tauzin chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecommunications, media and entertainment industries. Most recently, however, [Tauzin] was one of the principal authors of the Medicare prescription drug bill that included several provisions expected to vastly expand the market for prescription drugs among the elderly. In addition to adding hundreds of billions of dollars for drug benefits, the law bars the federal government from directly bargaining down the price of drugs, a provision PhRMA pressed for. [ The industry spent an estimated 138 million to assist in passage of the legislation. And, on top of that amount, annually the industry spends a reputed 400 million lobbying congress, which if you're interested, amounts to over 1 million per House member and senator! Reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada is also a "no no" to the industry. Citizens of the US pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world, and thus subsidize the so-called R and D of the pharmacueticals.]

PhRMA made a run at Tauzin in recent days and offered a compensation package that, if Tauzin accepts it, "would be the biggest deal given to anyone at a trade association," a source said. The organization recently announced that current president Alan F. Holmer will retire once a successor is appointed, following an ultimately successful but image-punishing battle over the Medicare legislation. ...