Dukakis’ Policies Vegetating, Quayle Charges

Woe is the attention-hungry vice presidential campaign when the coming of Hurricane Gilbert and the opening of the Summer Olympics conspire to knock it out of the news. Almost unimaginable things can happen.

So it was as Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle tried to compete Friday with a natural disaster and quadrennial sports. Out came the school kids. Out came the brass bands. Out came the endive.

Belgian endive. Or, as Quayle called it in a speech here, “Belgium endive.”

Quayle pulled an endive--which resembles a sallow cucumber--from below the lectern here as his audience of Republicans giggled. “Endive!” he crowed.

Recalls Dukakis Comment

The Republican vice presidential nominee went theatrical as he tried to convince Midwesterners that he knows more about agriculture than Democratic presidential nominee Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

Like every Dukakis foe this political year, Quayle was unable to resist dredging out a year-old comment Dukakis made to Iowa farmers. Maybe you could boost the farm economy by growing Belgian endive and blueberries, the Massachusetts governor said.

“Endive!” Quayle told supporters who paid $50 to hear him speak. “My first reaction was that endive was the 3-meter springboard event at the Olympics.”

Quayle also used the vegetable to assault Dukakis’ defense policy.

“His farm policy is the Belgium endive and his defense policy is the Belgium waffle,” he said.

Quayle also indulged in a little old-fashioned school politicking, joining Omaha’s Northwest High School students for some barbecued beef sandwiches and milk in the cafeteria.

After chatting about the evening’s football game, he urged the students to “just say no” to drugs and to knuckle down and study.

Chamber of Commerce Meeting

Friday began as a loose day for Quayle. He offered only a brief opening speech, then opened the floor for questions at an Overland Park, Kan., meeting of the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

How much, a man in the audience wanted to know, does the George Bush campaign manage you? Quayle, answering with good-humored bluntness that drew laughter and applause, noted that he has traveled to “25 states in, like, 23 days.”

“When you get at that kind of a pace and that kind of a schedule, you have a lot of people trying to tell you what to do,” Quayle said.

“Trying to tell you: Go to your room. Matter of fact, after some of the comments I’ve made, I’ve been told that a lot. Been fun by myself there.”

Quayle also noted his mastery of the odd political custom of disembarking from one’s campaign plane and waving lustily at the distance as if greeting hordes of fans, even when none are present. The point, of course, is that television cameras record the candidate’s arrival.