For weeks - including last night - Andrews has been holding news conferences challenging Lautenberg to a series of debates.

The Lautenberg camp has been saying it would oblige, but no dates or venues have been chosen. That has Andrews' supporters wondering aloud if Lautenberg is dodging the debate issue until the June 3 primary election for Lautenberg's Senate seat is over.

Lautenberg said in a meeting with The Inquirer's editorial board yesterday that he's been hesitating because "it has to do with my thoughts as to whether or not I want to sit face to face with him or whether we want to do it in some kind of a detached mode. That's an option I have."

Lautenberg declined to appear before the editorial board jointly with Andrews.

As for a televised debate, Lautenberg said: "I wouldn't enjoy it because I think his behavior has been contemptuous."

Lautenberg said Andrews promised to support him at a meeting over Chinese takeout in Lautenberg's Washington home in October. Also attending were the state's six other Democratic congressmen, who all pledged support.

"Rob Andrews isn't someone, in my view, who likes to keep his word," Lautenberg said. The cordial dinner meeting and promises "didn't prevent him, at a much later date, from assembling a campaign against me."

Lautenberg added: "I think it stinks. It's outrageous."

He also took Andrews' campaign chairman, Mike Murphy, to task, saying Murphy had promised to keep the campaign clean.

"Then they write the insinuating stuff about confused and age and all that. So, you deal with what you got," he said.

Andrews has been subtly picking away at Lautenberg's age, saying the senator is "confused" on the issues and the product of a "tired, old" politics. Lautenberg is 84 and would be 90 at the end of the six-year senate term he now seeks.

But Lautenberg warned: "If Andrews has nothing more than my age to worry about, then he's in bad shape. I can tell you that."

Soon after Andrews announced April 2 that he was running, Lautenberg's campaign scrambled into war mode. Within two weeks, it began running negative TV ads against Andrews, and last week began a radio campaign against him. Yesterday, it unveiled a Web page that criticizes Andrews for his early support of the war in Iraq. Andrews has since called for a U.S. withdrawal.

Andrews has persisted in calling for debates with Lautenberg, saying the voters deserve to hear their views. Last night, Andrews noted that he's accepted a dozen invitations to debate and that Lautenberg has accepted none.

"The people of New Jersey deserve an honest debate about the difference between the candidates," Andrews said.

His campaign chairman, Murphy, said Andrews' 18 years in Congress make him a legitimate candidate against Lautenberg.

"To suggest that he doesn't deserve a forum to debate issues is, frankly, offensive," Murphy said.