Quayle Derides Rival for Going to Congress for Advice : Dukakis’ Defense Credentials Belittled

Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle attacked the defense credentials of Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in scathing and sarcastic terms Tuesday, charging that he “doesn’t have the understanding or the qualifications” to run for President.

Here and at a campaign rally later in Bismarck, N. D., Quayle belittled a meeting Dukakis held Sunday with 11 Democratic security experts as evidence of a gap in the Democratic nominee’s own knowledge.

“I find it rather shocking that eight weeks before the election somebody that is running for President of the United States has to go to members of Congress to be briefed on national security,” Quayle told supporters at the opening of a Bush-Quayle campaign headquarters here.

“The Democratic . . . candidate who wants to be President of this country doesn’t know enough about national defense that he has to stop in and ask the members of Congress that I’ve been working with for the past 12 years, ‘What do we do in the area of national security?’ ”

The Indiana senator added derisively, “Want to hear a sad story about the Dukakis campaign? The governor of Massachusetts, he lost his top naval adviser last week.”

Quayle paused.

“The rubber duck drowned in his bathtub.”

In Bismarck, Quayle called Dukakis “the most anti-defense candidate on a national level since (1972 Democratic presidential candidate) George McGovern” and, listing weapons systems he said Dukakis has opposed, called the governor’s defense positions “dangerously naive.”

The vice presidential nominee charged that Dukakis had begun a recent toughening of his defense positions because polls show a surge by the Bush campaign.

The senator made his remarks as the Republicans mounted a multiple assault on Dukakis’ efforts to turn back questions about his defense posture and his national security experience.

On Monday, Vice President George Bush, the GOP presidential nominee, challenged Dukakis to make clear his views on the invasion of Grenada and the bombing of Libya, both Reagan Administration tactics strongly supported by Bush and popular among voters.

Dukakis was initially critical of the Grenada action and has said that, although he supported bombing Libya, he would not have targeted the area where Col. Moammar Kadafi lived.

Besides toughening his defense stance after persistent criticism by Bush, Dukakis tried to showcase his interest in defense and security issues by meeting Sunday with 11 Democratic congressional leaders, including the chairmen of the Armed Services committees of the Senate and the House.

Quayle’s critical comments drew partisan laughter from supporters, which the Republican vice presidential candidate cut short in Wauwatosa.

“It is funny but it’s sad, it’s sad for America to have somebody that doesn’t have the understanding or the qualifications on national security to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,” he said.

Quayle, on the second day of a five-day swing through the upper Midwest and the Farm Belt, attended other rallies Tuesday in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs, Colo.