ASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley responded to criticism about his years after leaving the Senate by calling it a period of rejuvenation.
''I'll tell you, quite frankly, had I not left the Senate, and gotten out of Washington, and been in the real world, and had an experience that I had, I don't think that I'd be running for president today,'' Bradley said in an interview broadcast yesterday on CNN's ''Evans, Novak, Hunt and Shields.''
''It was a period of rejuvenation and a period that was very refreshing to me, and it gave me a chance to think about where the country was and where I'd like to take the country,'' said Bradley, who represented New Jersey for 18 years before leaving the Senate in 1997.
Vice President Al Gore's campaign has criticized Bradley for leaving the Senate at a time when Democrats were needed to oppose the GOP majority, and for accepting millions of dollars in speaking fees, mostly from special-interest groups, after he left Washington.
Bradley said that after the Senate, he worked as a professor at several schools, wrote a book, and took leading roles in several organizations.
''All those brought income to me and to my family. I mean, that's what you do in the private sector,'' Bradley said on CNN, in a rare instance of replying to Gore's criticism. ''I had a life before I got into politics and I had a life since I left the Senate.''
