Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 4, 1994 TAG: 9405110060
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cal Thomas
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
No joke.
Quayle says he will make up his mind by fall after a national tour for his new book, ``Standing Firm.'' This is Quayle's account of his selection as George Bush's 1988 running mate and the nearly nonstop public ridicule he endured for four years.
It is not a bitter book, and Quayle admits his share of mistakes, which are not about policy, but naivete in dealing with the press and perceptions it creates. He recalls numerous instances of media double standards. Just one example: ``When Al Gore made a reference to the leopard changing his stripes instead of his spots, misstated the name of President James Knox Polk and botched our nation's motto - e pluribus unum - people took it for what it was: a natural mistake. If I'd done it, there would have been a week of Quayle jokes on the late-night shows and three dozen editorial cartoons set inside zoos.''
Quayle is forthcoming about the reasons the Bush administration collapsed from within. He takes to task his handlers during the 1988 campaign who served him poorly (but themselves richly) and those within the Bush White House whose grabs for turf and lack of vision doomed any chance of a second Bush term.
``[The Bush] administration had begun to appear merely competent, without any driving creed. We were, in some minds, turning into the caretakers of the Reagan revolution, appearing unable to keep up with changes in the country's circumstances. ... The administration fell victim to its own short-term, reactive thinking.'' Says Quayle, Bush wanted to be the ``education president, but he never pushed it hard enough.''
The book, for the first time, reveals how Quayle differed from the president and his advisers on economic matters. The vice president was for cutting taxes and spending, and he believes if the GOP recaptures those issues and links them unapologetically to the family-values agenda that President Clinton has tried to plagiarize, Republicans will do well in this year's congressional races and could defeat Clinton in 1996.
Despite Clinton's rhetoric, he lacks credibility on the family-values issue. So, what should Quayle do if he wants to make a credible run for the Republican nomination in 1996 - in a race with no GOP heir apparent, the first time that's happened since 1964?
Former Reagan and Bush speech writer Peggy Noonan, who was among those leading a ``dump Quayle'' effort in 1992, thinks he should speak a lot in black churches. ``Those grandmothers will love his message about family,'' she tells me, ``and with them on his side he can build from there.''
That's good for starters. But if a Quayle political resurrection is to come, he must immediately address the ``dumbness'' factor by impressing television viewers during his book tour about his grasp of issues and his capacity for sound solutions. Sixties liberalism, as practiced by the Clinton-Gore administration, he should say, is dead. Government cannot and should not be expected to solve our central problems, which are largely moral, spiritual and family-related, not economic and political.
And Quayle must lay out a vision, which was missing from the Bush years. Why are we not where we ought to be? Where would Quayle lead us and how? What is the proper role of government? Such questions must be answered not with philosophy but with specifics.
Prior to 1992, Quayle had never lost an election (and it wasn't his fault that that election was lost). He was on the fast track in politics. During his vice presidency, he wasn't so much derailed as he was hit head-on by an ideological and media train running in the opposite direction.
The Republican Party has become largely reactive to the Clinton administration, especially on health care. It needs someone to launch an ideological debate along firmly established dividing lines. If Dan Quayle can do that, he could emerge as the party's choice to challenge Bill Clinton in two years. By then, those moral and cultural issues will be at the top of most people's list of central concerns. No potential candidate, with the possible exception of William Bennett, spoke out earlier on this agenda than Dan Quayle.
In his book, Quayle hints we may not have seen the last of him: ``How you exit is important - especially if you're thinking of coming back.''
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
by CNB