Marilyn Quayle Describes ‘Ugly’ Campaign Coverage

Marilyn Quayle complained Tuesday that the 1988 campaign that often focused on her husband’s qualifications to be vice president was an “ugly chapter in journalism” and “an ugly chapter in my life.”

“1988 was a baptism of fire for the Quayles,” she said at a National Press Club luncheon. “Before it was over, I felt at least a little singed. It hurt reading stories or seeing reports about a man bearing almost no resemblance to the one I love deeply.

“At times I felt misunderstood, misrepresented, very angry and terribly vulnerable,” she said.

But the wife of Vice President Dan Quayle told reporters she did not want to dwell on the past. She said she chose to make the Press Club speech in response to the many questions on the subject that she gets while making appearances across the country.

Defending her sometimes chilly relationship with the media, Mrs. Quayle said: Chalk it up to inexperience and protectiveness.

“I was worried about my children--a natural enough reaction for any mother, let alone one plunged overnight into the national spotlight,” she said. “So I put on my armor to do battle for my family, and in the process I froze some of you (reporters) out. I regret that.”

In a question-and-answer session after her speech, Mrs. Quayle said her toughest times were after her husband, a conservative senator from Indiana, was selected by George Bush to be his running mate. The surprise choice was met with ridicule and derision in some quarters.

“I don’t want to dwell on what I think was an ugly chapter in journalism or an ugly chapter in my life,” she said. But she added: “I always pick bones with people who pick the personal track.”

Since her ordeal she said that she and her husband had “learned a lot,” and she appealed to the media: “Let’s meet halfway. I only ask for fairness and accuracy. In my book, that’s not much. There’s an old saying that when you’re through changing--you’re through.”

She also said that one of her heroines is Eleanor Roosevelt.