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Dan Quayle:

Dan Quayle - Moral Huckstateer

Tuesday, October 28th 1997: It's no accident that former Vice President Dan Quayle thinks Al Gore's remarks on Ellen Degeneris are more important that the 13% drop in stock markets since late Summer and a 545 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday. No, Dan "Potatoe Head" Quayle, too silly to be a Muppet, thinks he's got Gore on the ropes because the current Vice President says "values" are something shared by more than White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants who belong to the Christian Coalition.

The Smooch

Thanks to ABC for this photo

Yesterday, Quayle challenged Gore to a debate "on the issue of values" which has to be one big guffaw when you consider Quayle's culpability in Iran/Contra and with the Bush Administration in general. But then Quayle could plead "diminished capacity."

Quayle spoke to a flock of Republicans eating a rubber chicken fundraising dinner and talked of problems facing the United States -- education, national security, and most important to him -- "a crisis in values." He stupidly reminded his fat-cat audience of his mega-gaff in 1992 when he actually criticized the television show "Murphy Brown" for depicting voluntary single motherhood. That showed what a political numb-nuts Quayle is - he gained about a million hard-line Christian voters who were dumb enough to forget that "Murphy" could have aborted her baby -- something they foam over -- and he simultaneoulsy lost about 80 million voters who think taking care of children alone is better than marrying for convenience.

Al Gore in L.A.

Quayle, who would be a forked tongue devil -- if he was smart enough, raged at Gore's recent remarks, at the same time explaining that he "tolerated" homosexuals, but that Gore "pandered to Hollywood Values."

Gee, I guess Gore does, if Hollywood's values include respect for human beings, no matter what color, religion or sexual preference with which they're born.

" Gore's comment last week in Los Angeles, "When Ellen came out, Americans were forced to look at sexual orientation in a more open light."

According to "Dumb Dan,"the statement was a sign that , "Al Gore and the Hollywood elite want to force Americans to accept their agenda. They want to force Americans to accept their particular values."

Quayle thinks America "won't stand for this."

"I am tolerant of the gay lifestyle," the not-to-bright Quayle said, "If somebody wants to choose to live the gay lifestyle, that's their choice. I guess he flunked Psych 101which teaches one that gays don't "choose" their lifestyles. That would be like Quayle "choosing" to be a genius.

Quayle didn't stop there. He went on putting his foot in his mouth saying, "But what Al Gore and the Hollywood elite are doing are saying to me and the rest of America, you have to go beyond tolerance. You have to endorse and approve this lifestyle. I don't believe most Americans will do that."

Huh?

Quayle also stupidly lauded Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Senate investigation into campaign fund-raising abuses and is held in low esteem by American voters -- "I give Fred Thompson high marks. I find him to be a very effective, intelligent senator."

Well, look at the source.

Dan is still smarting over George Bush's diary where the former president wrote that he "blew it" in his decision choosing Quayle as his running mate.

Here's a good "Quayle-ism" on that one.

"The word 'decision,' "said Quayle, "was not referring to the decision of me being his running mate. George Bush has stated that publicly."

Quayle has actually had the gall to say he's considering running for President in 2000. Take it from me he is quite alone in that goal, except for the few campaign consultants, who risk their professional credibility for merely being involved with him.

While Quayle's on his way to New Hampshire this morning, the world's economy seems to be on the edge of collapse. The Hong Kong Stock Market crashed another 14% and European markets are in a shambles.

Robert Rubin

Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said that stock exchange circuit breakers, designed to halt panic, worked yesterday. They didn't Bob. As soon as the first halt in trading was over panicked sellers shoved their way to the bar lopping another few hundred points off the Dow.

You can be sure that behind the cool, collected Rubin are a gaggle of hysterical aides and politicians trying to spin the world financial crisis to their advantage and avert national hysteria at the same time. Already several dozen meetings have been held in New York and Washington between members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve as well as Senate and House Leaders and the President. Rubin is phoning the International Monetary Fund on an almost hourly basis and speaks with The World Bank regularly trying to figure a way to halt the Asian meltdown.

Mike McCurry

Despite the calm evidenced by White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, all hell is breaking loose in Washington. The President has not commented on the situation as yet and McCurry called yesterday's slide "a bare fraction of major breathtaking drops in the past."

Well, Mike, wait until today after the 4PM (or earlier) market closing. You'd better have something up your sleeve.

Right now I'm looking at the 6 AM sunrise over Manhattan. A 40 MPH "ill wind" is buffeting Wall Street. Are the white caps on the river a harbinger of doom?

One thing's for sure, we can't blame Alan Greenspan. He tried to warn us.

I can just hear Quayle now... but then again, perhaps this time he'll get it right. All he need do is link the current market firestorm to the immoral trappings of Republican greed.

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EXTRA!!

HERE'S A FROWN AND A SMILE: Sometimes people need to cancel their subscriptions. But some people in responsible positions, like Managing Editor David Clancy of the Asian Review of Business & Technology must think they're the cat's meow.

We're glad to help with subscription problems, but here's what happens when your ego gets a little too big. By the way, we also sent a copy of Dave's e-mail to his publisher, Alain Charles, and asked him for an apology. We're sure he'd want to know. In a city like London - so steeped in tradition and polo, we know Mr. Charles will not take kindly to the impudence of his staff - especially Clancy, who presides over the editorial content of a magazine with merely 24,000 annual readers. We have nearly a million -- but who's counting.

We're not stuffed shirts by a long shot, but our female interns don't need to be harassed.

Here's what Clancy wrote, and here's what Liz wrote back -- the red highlighting is ours.

IS THIS PROPER CONDUCT FOR A MANAGING EDITOR?

A NOT-SO-NICE NOTE FROM DAVID CLANCY OF THE ASIAN REVIEW OF BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY

Subject: Re: Good Morning from American Politics!

Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 09:12:34 +0000

From: David Clancy <davidc@alain.demon.co.uk>

To: American Politics

David Clancy wrote: Please stop sending this crap to me.

David Clancy, Managing Editor, Asian Review of Business & Technology,

Tel: 44-171-834-7676 Fax: 44-171-973-0076 E-Mail: davidc@alain.demon.co.uk

Subject: Re: Good Morning from American Politics!

Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 13:26:07 -0500

From: "American Politics" <editors@apj.us>

Organization: American Politics, PO Box 0409, Navesink, NJ 07752

To: David Clancy <davidc@alain.demon.co.uk> References: 1

Dear Mr. Clancy:

Thanks so much for the gentlemanly manner in which you asked for your subscription to American Politics be cancelled.

We have done so.

We'll write about it tomorrow and quote you so 800,000 people can see what you're made of.

Kindest Regards

Liz Calahan

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A Word from Eliot Janeway:

"JK, a client, a friend, and one of the keenest minds in American politics, told me one afternoon: 'A good place to begin thinking critically about American and Western European politics is to ask yourself: What kind of man or woman would choose to run for public office?Think about that." - I did."

Now, come and read JK who, for more than 25 years, has elevated the phrase -- "There's a sucker born every minute" -- to dazzling heights.

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