Quayle Calls On a Soul Mate : Politics: Vice President Quayle stops in L.A. on a swing to raise cash and interest in GOP candidates, dropping in on a political brother, former President Ronald Reagan.

Vice presidents are supposed to make money, not news. Thus did Dan Quayle perform Tuesday.

He dallied in Los Angeles midway through a West Coast fund-raising swing, just after San Francisco, just before San Diego. He offered his now-routine cautionary criticisms of the Soviet Union. He praised the efforts of democracy-hungry East Europeans. He backed up his boss, President Bush, on the politically itchy subject of abortion.

And, in a visit meant to set astir the hearts of conservatives, he sidled up to President Reagan’s Century City office, where the once and future hopes of the Republican right chatted about communists and--almost more threatening, by American standards now--those drastically successful Japanese.

Theirs was small talk writ large. Consider the exchange about the view from the demilitarized border between North and South Korea, which Quayle visited last month and Reagan observed in trips during his presidency. There, the seemingly prosperous village of Paek Chon Ni stands. It is generally deserted and, intelligence officials say, is simply the North Korean version of a movie set.

“You walk out there and see the propaganda village,” Quayle said.

“And they’re all just fronts!” burst in the former President, his shoulders shaking in glee.

So successful was Quayle in his continuing effort to quell controversy that when a reporter interrupted the picture-taking to ask a question, the question--about the capital gains tax--went to Reagan.

But if Quayle had little of great importance to divulge Tuesday, his trip did manage to succeed in its primary objective--to raise cash and interest in Republican candidates, and to do a few favors that he might one day be able to call in.

The vice president and his entourage left Washington early Monday, raised money for Oregon Republicans there, then traveled to San Francisco where he raised more money and rallied businessmen to support Sen. Pete Wilson, who is now running for governor. After speaking to the Town Hall of California at the Century Plaza Hotel here, he visited Reagan and then flew to San Diego for another speech. Private fund-raising meetings were held along the way.

After addressing a Big Brothers gathering in San Diego, Quayle cut his visit there short and headed back to the Bay Area to inspect the quake damage. Aides said that there was no way to calculate how much Quayle raised on this trip, one of several he has made to Los Angeles since his inauguration nine months ago. But figures gathered before this swing showed that Quayle has thus far raised almost $9 million, three times the amount raised by Bush during his first year as vice president, an aide said.

The Reagan stop reunited two men who are more ideological soul mates with each other than either is with Bush, and Quayle appeared clearly at ease with Reagan.

In brief comments after the meeting, Quayle described the session as “very good.”

“We talked a lot about his upcoming trip to Japan,” said Quayle. “I was just there and we talked about some of the people he was going to be meeting. . . . Most of the conversation was focused on Japan and just some general social conversation.”

Reagan, who leaves Thursday for a speaking tour of Japan, did not attend Quayle’s Town Hall address, which took place next door to the former President’s office. But he would not have been displeased by the speech’s content.

The vice president praised the protests of East Germans who have taken to the streets to seek more democratic government.

“Last night, 120,000 people demonstrated for freedom in Leipzig, East Germany,” he said. “Their call for freedom is eloquent and it deserves our strong support. . . . We must remember, however, that freedom’s success is never assured. Poland is one road, the hopeful road for others to follow. Tian An Men Square is another road.”

As he has repeatedly, the vice president cautioned Americans not to make too much of recent liberal moves by the Soviet Union.

“Although this is a time of hope, it is no time for complacency,” said Quayle, who defended the U.S. military presence in several parts of the world, including the Philippines and Korea.

“On the contrary, this is a time to recognize that the world remains a very dangerous place.” Quayle’s travels and the sheer repetition of speech making have left him more relaxed on the political stump than he was at this time last year, when reporters hung on his every gaffe.

Only one was readily apparent Tuesday--when he greeted the crowd of “distinguished ladies and gentlemens”--and the vice president even inspired a little laughter, if not much applause. Asked, for example, whether the U.S. should pressure the Japanese to increase their defense spending, Quayle offered a droll remark:

“Before we get carried away and encourage Japan to rearm--let’s stop and think about it,” he said. The audience, clearly thinking about Pearl Harbor, laughed.