Keep Your Enemies Clo$er?

And now the most scintillating two minutes in television, the latest from the political grapevine:

Keep Your Enemies Clo$er?

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean (search) has touted himself as -- "the outside the beltway guy," and his campaign has promised to -- "take this country back from a bunch of lobbyists." But some lobbyists are part of his election effort.

Washington lobbyist Bruce Andrews, who represents such companies as DirecTV, told FNC contributor Jeff Birnbaum that he and three other registered lobbyists meet about every other week to help Dean's campaign.

The others represent companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, BellSouth Corporation, and groups involved in Latino advocacy. Each has also contributed money to Dean's campaign.

Moore Mean What He Says?

Filmmaker and left-wing activist Michael Moore -- who has endorsed former NATO Commander Wesley Clark (search) -- has praised Clark's leadership and called him -- "a candidate that shares our values."

But more than four years ago, as online columnist Andrew Sullivan notes, Moore condemned the war in Kosovo -- under Clark's command -- as a -- "misguided, ruthless -- and, yes, cowardly -- attack from the air."

Moore also wrote that the NATO allies were -- "just [going] off half-cocked on our own, and ... killing the very people we were claiming to save."

South Not Necessary?

Democratic front-runner John Kerry (search), meanwhile, is disputing that any Democratic candidate would have to attract Southern voters to win the presidency, telling an audience at Dartmouth College over the weekend -- "Everybody always makes the mistake of looking south. Al Gore (search) proved he could have been president of the United States without winning one Southern state."

Soros Speculation

Billionaire currency speculator George Soros (search) -- who has said he would give up his $7 billion fortune if he were assured it would get President Bush defeated this year -- says the Bush administration is a -- "group of extremists ... [that] particularly feel the need for [military power] when our very existence is threatened."

Soros, writing in London's Guardian, also says -- "The [9/11] suicide bombers' motivation seemed incomprehensible at the time of the attack, now a light begins to dawn: they wanted us to react the way we did. Perhaps they understood us better than we understood ourselves."

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report