And then there's Carlson's larger point, that Edwards would give the money back if he really cared about the little girl. Bush could have given his buyout back to the Texas Rangers if he really cared about the team. Cheney could have given his pension back to Halliburton if he really cared about the company. The Rangers might have been able to hold onto Alex Rodriguez, and Halliburton might have been able to charge the military less for gasoline in Iraq. No one suggests that businessmen like Cheney or Bush should work for free. But to undercut Edwards' populist image, the Republicans suggest that Edwards should have done just that.

Guillory, the University of North Carolina professor, explains the focus on Edwards' trial-lawyer millions: "Republicans, in the South particularly, campaign on the basis of a cultural affinity with the voters, particularly the white male voters, while the Democratic appeal to these people is on economic issues. By depicting Kerry and Edwards as rich guys, the Republicans are just being analytical about it. They want to say, 'While Edwards may be culturally connected to you, he's not genuine in his economic connection to you.' It's a way to diminish or crack the Democratic economic appeal."

Arguments about Edwards' campaign contributions from trial lawyers are aimed at a different audience: big business, insurers and those who work in the medical field.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Edwards raised $9.3 million from lawyers and other law firm employees during his run for the presidency. Lawyers and law firm employees have given an almost identical amount --- $9.2 million -- to Bush in his bid for reelection. But there are differences. The $9.3 million Edwards received from lawyers and law firm employees represents approximately one-third of his total; the $9.2 million Bush received represents a much smaller percentage of his overall take. Lawyers and law firm employees were the biggest contributors to the Edwards campaign, giving over 10 times more than the next closest identifiable "sector." Lawyer and law firm employees were the second biggest contributors to the Bush campaign -- retirees are the biggest -- followed by the real estate and investment industries, which gave Bush similar amounts.

The other difference, of course, is in the type of lawyer who gives. Edwards' biggest legal contributors work at law firms mostly or represent plaintiffs exclusively. Bush's biggest legal contributors are affiliated with Blank Rome, a Philadelphia-based firm that boasts of handling "significant matters and transactions for a large number of Fortune 500 companies," and Vinson & Elkins, the Houston-based firm whose biggest client used to be Enron.

"The Bush-Cheney folks love lawyers," says Carlton Carl, spokesman for the American Trial Lawyers Association. "They love lawyers who represent Enron and Firestone and the tobacco industry. The lawyers they don't like are the lawyers who represent people who are injured through no fault of their own."

That's not entirely true; the White House is backing former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez in the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Florida; Martinez, like Edwards, is a millionaire trial lawyer. Martinez's rival for the Republican Senate nomination, former Florida Rep. Bill McCollum, is already warning that his party can't have it both ways: He told the St. Petersburg Times that supporting Martinez while running against Edwards amounts to "sending blatantly mixed signals" that "would be bad politics and potentially damaging to the president."

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