Cannot adjust margins between <p>'s

[dkoro]

I have a very simple page with a left menu column, and for some reason I just cannot tighten up the spacing between the <p>'s in the left column (the "Item #1" etc)...setting both margins and padding to 0 has no effect. Its driving me crazy! Currently its in a <blockquote> which I thought was the problem but removing the <blockquote> doesn't help. Any ideas? Here's the style sheet:

body {
	font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; 
	background-color:#c0e1e6; 
	margin:0; 
	padding:0;
	}

#wrapper {
	overflow:auto;
	}

#top {
	background-image:url(homepage-top.gif); 
	background-repeat:no-repeat; 
	height:108px; 
	display:block;
	}

.colorbar-top {
	height:38px; 
	background-image:url(colorbar-top.gif); 
	background-repeat:repeat-x;
	}

.colorbar-bottom {
	height:22px; 
	background-image:url(colorbar-bottom.gif); 
	background-repeat:repeat-x;
	}

.maincontent {
	background-color:#FFF; 
	background-image:url(homepage-centerbkg.jpg); 
	background-repeat:no-repeat; 
	background-position:top left; 
	height:293px; 
	margin:0; 
	padding:0;
	}

.interiorcontent {
	background-color:#fff; 
	margin:0; 
	padding:20px; 
	overflow:auto;
	}

a {
	color:#0072b1; 
	text-decoration:none; 
	font-weight:bold;
	}

.bluetext {
	color:#0072b1; 
	font-weight:bold;
	}

.footer {
	font-size:11px; 
	color:#FFF; 
	margin:0 100px 10px 100px; 
	padding:10px; 
	float:right;
	}

.leftmenu {
	float:left; 
	width:170px; 
	font-size:14px; 
	font-weight:bold; 
	padding:0 10px 0 10px;
	}

.rightcolumn {
	border-left-color:#c0e1e6; 
	border-left-style:solid; 
	border-left-width:1px; 
	margin-left:200px; 
	padding:0 0 0 25px;
	}

.goldtext {
	color:#FF9C00;
	}

.graytext {
	color:#C1C1C1;
	}

.smalltext {
	font-size:10px; 
	color:#B4B4B4;
	}

.clear {
	clear:both;
	}

[drhowarddrfine]

What you are fighting is the height of the line for the text. Add 'line-height' to the css of that paragraphs and you can either set the px or, maybe better, adjust by less than 1em; ie, .8em