Quayle Report Card: Good Marks for Image Repair

Much is being made of President Bush’s performance during his first 100 days in office. But little has been written about Dan Quayle’s first 100 days as vice president. In Quayle’s case, the questions usually center on how well he’s been able to regain his confidence and his composure and rebuild his image after being battered during last year’s presidential race. The Quayle jokes have begun to subside. He’s been moderately successful in appearing at ease at public forums and at sessions with reporters. And, by many standards, he has earned good marks in his role as a presidential representative on his official trips to Venezuela, El Salvador and, currently, the Pacific. “As damaged as he was coming in, I don’t think you can expect any more than him trying to negate some of the damage that was done,” said Phil Truluck of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

--The good name of Henry Flipper has been restored--thanks to the state of Georgia. In a special ceremony in Thomasville, Atty. Gen. Michael Bowers placed a marker at the grave of Flipper, the first black to be graduated from West Point. Bowers said it was time “we righted this great wrong.” Flipper was graduated from West Point in 1877 and four years later, as the officer in charge of the Ft. Sill, Okla., commissary, he was charged with embezzling $3,791 and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was acquitted of the theft charge but convicted of unbecoming conduct. However, it took 96 years more for the Army to exonerate the man West Point would later name part of its library after. Flipper’s niece, Irsle King of Valdosta, Ga., and Gwinnett County teacher Ray MacColl had fought for 18 years to secure proper recognition. The man who was born into slavery in Thomasville died in 1940 at the age of 84--long before a world was able to express its regrets.

--The recent rampage in New York’s Central Park in which a woman jogger was beaten and raped by a gang of young thugs has prompted real estate tycoon Donald Trump to pay $85,000 for full-page ads in four New York newspapers calling for a return of the death penalty. In an interview with United Press International, Trump said: “The criminal is being protected and the victim is getting zero protection.” He said the message in his ads, which are running today, “is going beyond the death penalty--this is giving back the policemen their power. . . . “