Barack Obama and John McCain traded charges over the influence of lobbyists in their campaigns Wednesday, escalating a dispute that could shift attention from their bitter, week-long feud over foreign policy.

McCain has been racked by a series of revelations about the lobbying ties of his campaign staff, and in response has parted ways with several advisers and enacted a strict new ethics policy.

Obama teased at that wound Wednesday, suggesting McCain stood at the helm of an operation infested by high-priced Washington favor-seekers.

"We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists, but has been a defender of fairness and opportunity for every American," Obama said in Tampa, Fla.

The Illinois senator and front-runner for the Democratic nomination taunted McCain by bringing up unsuccessful legislation he sponsored in 1997 that would prohibit lobbyists from working in presidential campaigns.

"Well I'll tell you that John McCain then would be pretty disappointed with John McCain now," Obama said. "Because he hired some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington to run (his) campaign."

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds fired back that Obama's hardly one to talk.

"Despite his own campaign's ties to lobbyists, nothing comes between Barack Obama and a partisan political attack. In Senator Obama's world, lobbyists can raise money and advise his campaign on policy issues, their families can contribute but supposedly they have no role," Bounds said in a statement.

"What is Senator Obama hiding? John McCain has an unmatched record of fighting the influence of special interests in Washington."

McCain and Obama have increasingly raised the volume on their disputes as Obama moves closer to clinching the Democratic nomination. Obama claimed a majority of pledged delegates when Kentucky and Oregon held their primaries Tuesday.

When it comes to ethics, the McCain campaign has repeatedly challenged Obama to enact the same kind of conflict-of-interest policy he outlined last week.

Under the policy, nobody on the campaign can be a registered lobbyist or foreign agent, or receive payment for such work. Nobody with a campaign title may work with a "527″ group or other independent group that publicly supports or opposes a presidential candidate.

The policy was announced in the midst of a mini-staffing purge, and the campaign required all staff members to disclose any lobbying ties, especially those that could be "embarrassing for the senator and the campaign."

The latest casualty was former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, McCain's national finance co-chairman. Loeffler runs the lobbying shop The Loeffler Group, and his resignation, announced Sunday, was the highest profile departure from McCain's inner circle since a summer 2007 shake-up cost McCain his campaign manager and chief strategist.

McCain also fired energy policy adviser Eric Burgeson, who represents energy companies as a lobbyist, and asked Craig Shirley to resign from his Virginia leadership team because he was behind an independent group that has been criticizing Hillary Clinton and Obama on the Internet. Two other McCain aides resigned their positions following reports that they were working for a firm that did lobbying work with the Burmese military junta in 2002.

But the new McCain ethics policy underscored the fine line the Arizona senator has drawn. Several top strategists working on his campaign are lobbyists who have taken leaves of absence from their jobs to work for McCain. Among them are campaign manager Rick Davis, whose past clients have included a Russian industrialist, and Charlie Black, a high profile Washington lobbyist with domestic and foreign clients.

Black called the ado over lobbyists "inside-the-Beltway nonsense" and reportedly said "average voters" would not care about the issue.

Obama scoffed at that assessment Wednesday and said "well, I think the American people do care about it."

But Obama, too, has drawn a fine line with lobbyists, which Bounds pointed out in two statements Wednesday.

Bounds called Obama "completely hypocritical" for allowing lobbyists to bundle campaign contributions for him.

"In Obama's world, a lobbyist can't contribute to the campaign, but they can raise money and advise the candidate on policy issues. It's absurd," he said.

Obama consistently states he will not take contributions from "Washington lobbyists" or political action committees. But that doesn't stop him from accepting contributions from state and local lobbyists, and industries that also have broad influence in Washington like the energy and health care sectors and law firms.

The Clinton campaign accused Obama of welcoming lobbyists onto his campaign in an ad before the Pennsylvania primary.

Massie Ritsch, spokesman for The Center for Responsive Politics -- which tracks campaign contributions -- said Obama's standard is more a symbol than a financial sacrifice.

"PAC money is only about 1 percent of the money in a presidential race so he's really not leaving much money on the table by not taking it," he told FOXNews.com. "Similarly, lobbyist money does not amount to a whole lot ... but I think these are politically symbolic positions that do mean something to voters ... it's money you can most associate and tie to the influence industry in Washington."

Despite the renewed focus on lobbyists, the two campaigns continued to battle over their foreign policy differences Wednesday.

That fight started after President Bush last week criticized politicians who would negotiate with radical leaders. Obama took those remarks as an insult, since he's said he would meet with leaders of state sponsors of terrorism without preconditions.

McCain called Obama's position "dangerous" and "naive" and "based entirely on emotion" in a statement Wednesday.

Obama said McCain was perpetuating the failed foreign policy strategies of President Bush.

FOX News' Bonney Kapp, Major Garrett, Mosheh Oinounou and Judson Berger and The Associated Press contributed to this report.