Too Late to Ignore Him

The United States once had a vice president--an unimpressive, poorly educated, politically tainted Midwesterner--who was thoroughly disdained by the aides to the charismatic Ivy Leaguer in the White House. They ignored him and denied him access to vital national-security matters, including information about the construction of the first atomic bomb. The vice president, of course, was Harry S. Truman, whose down-to-earth manner and moral toughness endeared him to many Americans once he succeeded to the White House.

So Dan Quayle--another ill-educated Midwesterner, the butt of Johnny Carson’s jokes, the subject of front-page newspaper profiles wondering whether he can even be trusted to represent the Bush Administration at funerals--is in good company. What Quayle has found is what many people have known for a long time: Washington is a peculiar place. The Washington rumor mill exaggerates both the merits and the shortcomings of its leading citizens. No one could be as dumb as the Dan Quayle whom one sees depicted in the gossip sheets (though his shallowness and vast ignorance do give us pause); no one could be as smart as, say, Secretary of State-designate James A. Baker III, rumored to be one of Quayle’s chief detractors.

We don’t want to make too much about the flap over Quayle. The jokes will certainly pass; the writers of the Tonight Show are probably looking for fresh meat already. A year from now, newspapers may be running stories about the underestimated Dan Quayle (but don’t count on it).

This controversy will matter only if President-elect George Bush and his closest advisers do exclude Quayle from their deliberations, deny him any meaningful role in this Administration and leave him unprepared to sit in the White House should disaster strike. Bush, who himself suffered bouts of invisibility as the vice president, has said that it won’t happen. We hope not. So far, we have seen no evidence whatsoever that Quayle will ever rank with Truman or even George M. Dallas (look him up), but, for the country’s sake, he should not be kept out of the loop.