EW YORK - Vice President Al Gore did not respond yesterday to Bill Bradley's call to explain more fully his role in the 1996 White House fund-raising scandal.
Instead, he fired back, portraying the former New Jersey senator as a quitter who left the Senate rather than fight the Republican right in Congress and who lacks the vision needed to lead the country.
Speaking at a labor union hall yesterday, Gore also sought to take a share of credit for the robust economy, noting he had cast the tie-breaking vote on President Clinton's 1993 budget plan that some observers said helped revive the economy.
''I don't believe that you can run for the Democratic nomination by running down the progress and achievements of the Democratic Party over the past seven years, because, in fact, our policies have been good for this country,'' Gore said in a speech to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees at a headquarters of the union in Manhattan.
Bradley retired in 1996, and was still in the Senate for the budget vote, but it was hard to discern as much from Gore's timeline.
''When he retired from the Senate during President Clinton's first term, Senator Bradley spoke about what he called a budget stalemate and a process that was, in his words, `paralyzed, a continual deadlock,' and so he decided to leave,'' said Gore.
''But he was wrong. We broke that deadlock. We got over that paralysis and we brought the progress based on Democratic policies that have produced this prosperity today,'' Gore said, adding, ''We've got many fights ahead.''
Gore then revived his portrayal of Bradley as a quitter, asking, ''But if Senator Bradley could not foresee the progress that we made, when we decided to stay and fight against the Gingrich Republicans, what else does he not see now? How can he be counted to see what is right for working families today?''
The vice president also continued hammering away at Bradley's plan to provide near-universal health care, calling it ''ill-conceived'' and saying it would hurt New York more than any other state. ''He talks about big ideas, but on big decisions, he's made some wrong choices.''
Before speaking to AFSCME supporters, Gore held a closed-door meeting with union leaders from across New York state. Later, he donned a green hardhat from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 608 and walked through a site where a 41-story apartment building is under construction. ''I need your help on March 7,'' he told workers. Forty percent of registered voters in New York are union members.
The primary here could perhaps be one of the most competitive. Bradley, who played for the New York Knicks and represented New Jersey for 18 years in the Senate, is expected to do well here.
Gore, for his part, is counting on a massive effort by organized labor to get his supporters to the polls. And, after conspicuously distancing himself from Hillary Rodham Clinton in the state for months, he is apparently counting on some of her supporters to help him.
Yesterday, for the first time, Gore put in a plug for her bid to the US Senate, telling the predominantly minority audience at AFSCME, ''Let's join together now to elect Hillary Rodham Clinton.''
