The former senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the congressional record in 1971 tells a small group after his failed bids for the 2008 Democratic and Libertarian nominations: “This is the end of my political career.” But don’t worry about Mike Gravel. He certainly doesn’t: “What’s the worst thing that’s happened to me? I go back to a normal life? At my age? This is terrible?”

Related: Truthdig interviewed Gravel more than a year ago when he first launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination.

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