Quayle Calls Thomas Foes ‘Out of Step’ : Politics: The vice president suggests that civil rights groups opposing the Supreme Court nominee are not in touch with their constituents.

Vice President Dan Quayle, escalating the political rhetoric swirling around Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, Wednesday suggested that civil rights groups and Democrats opposing Thomas are allowing racial tensions to heighten.

Calling negative reaction to Thomas’ nomination “extraordinarily intolerant,” Quayle added that civil rights leaders, many of whom have opposed the black conservative, are “out of step” with sentiment in the black community at large.

“What is this? I mean, this is intolerance at its very worst,” he declared during an interview with The Times. “Where’s the outcry? Where’s the outcry of people that want to bring things together? . . .

“This is the kind of rhetoric we don’t need, yet those who say they are the ones that bring (different races) together--to resort to this kind of tactic? I tell you it’s not helpful at all.”

In the interview during a two-day swing through California, Quayle also uttered a harsh warning to Democrats about the Bush Administration’s willingness to campaign against those who support a Democratic civil rights bill. And he specifically denied that the 1988 Bush presidential campaign’s emphasis on black convict Willie Horton was racially insensitive.

On other subjects, Quayle dismissed the chance of a 1992 convention floor fight over abortion rights and predicted that Gov. Pete Wilson’s political future will be determined by the whims of the California economy.

Quayle’s suggestion that Thomas’ opponents are being divisive marked an extension of his role in the campaign to win the black judge a place on the U.S. Supreme Court to which Bush nominated him on July 1. The vice president has played an active role in the political effort, lobbying senators who will vote on the nomination and occasionally providing Thomas with a public forum to answer criticisms.

The Congressional Black Caucus, Americans for Democratic Action, several women’s groups and other minority organizations have criticized Thomas’ nomination.

The vice president, without citing his sources, contended that support for Thomas in the black community is widespread. He warned civil rights leaders against misreading their constituents.

“I dare say that maybe the civil rights leadership might want to take a look and see if they’re in tune with their constituency,” he said. “It doesn’t help if the leadership is out of step.”

The vice president repeated his support for Thomas at a Santa Maria breakfast to raise money for Rep. Robert Lagomarsino, a Republican who represents the area.

Later, Quayle traveled to Vandenberg Air Force Base, where he unveiled a new space policy that eventually will lead to limitations on the use of space shuttles and development of a new launching system.

Relations between the Bush Administration and civil rights leaders have been strained, beginning before the election, when the groups decried Bush’s use of convicted murderer Horton to illustrate his tough stance on crime. A recurring criticism by Bush and Quayle of Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis centered on Horton, who escaped during his furlough and attacked a Maryland husband and wife, who were white.

The vice president flatly denied on Wednesday criticisms that the Horton incident played to racial stereotypes.

“They misjudge this Willie Horton thing,” he said. “ . . . It was not about Willie Horton per se. It was about a furlough policy, the most liberal furlough policy in the country, and the way Gov. Dukakis sort of showed disdain and contempt for severity of sentencing and keeping hardened criminals in jail.”

In his remarks Wednesday, Quayle illustrated the difficulties inherent in discussions of race and politics.

He complained, for example, that elected officials are politicizing the civil rights legislation that has been the subject of months of bickering between the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill.

“Democrats think they’ve got good politics--they can go out and yell about civil rights.” he said. “Republicans think they’ve got good politics--they can go out and yell about quotas. . . . It doesn’t help solve the problem.”

But asked if his criticism was directed at President Bush--who has hammered the Democratic leadership for supporting legislation that he says will enforce job “quotas”--Quayle sought to turn blame back on the Democrats.

“If they want to make it a political issue, fine. And we will go out and talk in political terms and we will not be bashful,” he said of Republicans.

On another potentially divisive subject, Quayle played down reports that Republicans who favor abortion rights would attempt to challenge the existing party platform, which opposes abortion rights, at the 1992 GOP convention. A strategy session among pro-choice Republicans was held in Virginia last weekend.

“I don’t see any good reason to tinker with the platform,” said Quayle, who appeared to place a premium on a placid convention.

“We don’t need to have a rancorous, divided convention,” he said. “And I don’t think we will.”

Quayle said Republicans who support abortion rights should be satisfied with the Bush Administration’s repeated statements that the party is a “big tent” under which all points of view are allowed.

Unlike Bush, who supports a right to abortion in cases of rape, incest and threat to the life of the mother, Quayle favors allowing the procedure only when a woman’s life is threatened. He illustrated Wednesday a stern view of those who favor abortion rights.

“The way I view it, somebody that says ‘I’m pro-choice’ is that they have no problem with saying, look, almost an outright advocacy of abortion,” he said. “People that are pro-life say we just prefer you not to have an abortion. You ought to think about the potential life.”

Most Americans, he said, hold ambivalent views somewhere in the middle.

Quayle’s assessment of Wilson’s future was in line with the observations of other politicians watching to see if the governor increases his popularity by concluding the budget mess or finds himself trapped by future economic problems.

He said he believed that Wilson would benefit in the long run--”because he made the tough decisions early.”

But, he added, “we won’t know until a couple of years down the road. Now obviously, if they’re in the soup three-four years from now, it will be looked back on as not a good decision. On the other hand, if California is rolling along . . . Pete Wilson will reap benefits, pretty significant benefits.”

After his appearances in central California, Quayle traveled to Sacramento for lunch with Wilson.