CHICAGO (AP) - Former Gov. George Ryan kept his cool through eight years of an investigation and eight weeks of a racketeering and fraud trial that could send him to prison at age 71.

But when he believed he was being accused of "prostitution" by an old ally who had fought alongside him in the political wars a decade ago, fireworks went off.

Ryan was seething with anger at former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, a prosecution witness who ran unsuccessfully for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.

Ryan endorsed Gramm for president, giving the Texan the advantage of a mighty statewide political organization working for him in Illinois. But there was something in it for Ryan.

Gramm's campaign paid Ryan $11,000 in consulting fees.

When Gramm was asked if he had bought Ryan's endorsement, he said no. He also said buying an endorsement is something that he and his staff would never do.

When Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon asked why not, Gramm dropped a bombshell.

"It's a little like the difference between love and prostitution," Gramm said. A moment later the folksy former Texas senator added: "You don't pay people to like you."

That was what set Ryan's blood boiling, supporters say.

Ryan made sure to answer Gramm back in public. Seeing that he believed his reputation was at stake and that he was deeply upset about it, the attorneys allowed him to speak out.

But they did tell him he could only respond to what Gramm had said when the jury was out of the room. That included the "prostitution" remark.

And when Ryan spoke, it was with a vengeance.

"If Senator Gramm wants to use the word prostitute perhaps he should look within," he said.

Ryan made it plain that he was talking about the collapse of Texas-based Enron Corp., which wiped out the savings of many Enron employees and launched a federal criminal investigation.

Gramm's wife, Wendy, is a former head of the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and became a member of the Enron board of directors in 1993. As federal officials, both Gramms were involved in decisions that affected the company.

Neither Gramm has been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Enron.

But Ryan said Gramm decided "not to run for re-election to United States Senate following serious allegations of wrongdoing by Sen. Gramm and his wife."

"Perhaps investigators should revisit the Enron matter and the role the Gramms played in the demise of Enron, if any," Ryan told reporters after court had recessed for a long weekend.

Ryan said as part of his statement that he got $11,000 from the Gramm campaign as a "consulting fee" and added that in working for Gramm he had "earned every penny of it."

Among the charges Ryan faces is tax fraud, some of it in connection with the Gramm payments. But he admitted in 2002 that he got the money, filing an amended tax return.

Another view of the money was presented to the jury earlier in the week when John Weaver, a Gramm aide in the 1996 race, testified that it was Scott Fawell, Ryan's now imprisoned chief of staff, who told him that some consulting dollars had to be included in the campaign budget.

Weaver said he was surprised when Fawell sought $103,000 for consulting fees.

Weaver said that when he asked why the figure was so high, Fawell answered: "That's the way we do things in Chicago."

The funds were then paid by the campaign to a company headed by Alan Drazek, a former Republican state official now awaiting sentencing for money laundering in a related case. Drazek then passed the money through to Ryan's daughters, Fawell and another Ryan aide, Rich Juliano.