Quayle Leaves Tour Abruptly, Goes to Capital

Chomping on Polish sausage and Mexican nachos, Republican presidential nominee George Bush toured a heartland state fair here Sunday, applauded by fair-goers but shadowed by one conspicuous absentee: his running mate, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle.

The day originally was meant to showcase the Bush and Quayle families at the Illinois State Fair’s “Family Day.” But Quayle’s appearance was abruptly canceled and he flew back to Washington with Bush campaign officials, leaving the vice president to explain his departure and respond to new questions raised about his academic background.

Bush, speaking to reporters at the airport here Sunday afternoon, said Quayle left for Washington to get a jump on campaign preparations and to make personal arrangements necessitated by his surprise selection as Bush’s running mate.

“He’s got to get his act together and get the schedule going,” said Bush. “This hit him out of the clear blue sky.”

Later, aboard Air Force Two en route to Chicago, Bush contrasted Quayle’s actions with those who fled to Canada rather than risk going to war.

“Let everybody in that generation turn and cast the first stone and see where they were . . . then,” he said. “The National Guard is honorable service. Some went to Canada. . . . Do we condemn an entire generation? I don’t think so.”

Campaign chairman James A. Baker III, California-based political consultant Stuart K. Spencer--who will organize the Quayle campaign--and other Bush officials traveled back to Washington with Quayle after he and Bush attended Mass at a Polish church in Cleveland on Sunday morning.

Change of Plans

Earlier, campaign officials had announced that Quayle would not--as originally planned--take part in the rest of the day’s events, the Springfield fair and a Republican fund-raiser in Chicago on Sunday night.

Spencer said Quayle not only had to meet with Bush campaign officials to chart strategy, but also had to arrange for baby-sitters for his three young children and other personal concerns. He is scheduled to campaign alone beginning the middle of next week, and after that will meet Bush for joint appearances.

As campaign officials predicted hopefully that controversy over Quayle’s entrance into the National Guard during the Vietnam War would die out shortly, they were compelled Sunday to defend the candidate’s irregular entry into Indiana University School of Law.

According to Quayle, he wanted to join the National Guard so that he could attend law school--and not to avoid service in the Vietnam War. His father told The Times that young Quayle had to talk his way into law school because his college grades were not adequate.

Quayle himself told reporters Friday that his college grades were “average.”

Quayle’s father said the future senator approached the law school’s dean and successfully argued that DePauw, the university he attended, was academically more rigorous than most and that he should not be judged alongside students from other, less-rigorous institutions.

Tries Humor

Bush himself tried to defuse questions about Quayle’s academic history with humor.

Asked if Quayle is smart enough to be President, Bush said: “Yeah, like me.”

When a reporter referred to Quayle as a mediocre student, Bush said: “You’re looking at one.” In fact, however, the vice president was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale.

Bush said that he was average in high school, “and then I got to be brilliant in college.”

Campaign press secretary Sheila Tate, in a more somber response, said that “if Sen. Quayle was able to convince the dean of his motivation, then more power to him.

“And it proved to be a good decision,” she said. “He did well in law school.”

The Bush campaign also had to deal with questions inspired by press accounts, including one in The Times, which said Quayle landed a job in the Indiana attorney general’s office as a political appointee because of his wealthy family’s connections.

Bush has been fighting to change an image that he, the son of a wealthy Connecticut family, relates solely to those who are wealthy. He said criticism that Quayle benefited from well-to-do connections “isn’t particularly fair.

“I had help from my Dad,” Bush said. “I think Lloyd Bentsen did, and I think Mike Dukakis did.”

All four major party candidates have listed holdings that rank them as millionaires.