Democrat Says Quayle Uses ‘Wedge Politics’

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ronald H. Brown on Sunday accused Vice President Dan Quayle of practicing “wedge politics” in his speech about television character Murphy Brown’s new baby.

Brown, speaking on the CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation,” charged that Quayle’s speech, which sparked a firestorm of criticism, was a cynical political move designed to divide the nation and improve President Bush’s reelection prospects.

“What the vice president was doing was practicing typical Republican wedge politics,” Brown said. “We all know what a wedge is and what a wedge does: It divides, it splinters, it separates Americans from Americans. It was a very cynical political strategy.”

Quayle, in a speech Tuesday in San Francisco, lashed out at Murphy Brown, portrayed by Candice Bergen, and the award-winning CBS situation comedy of the same name. The character, who is single, gave birth to a baby boy in the season finale after choosing to go ahead with a pregnancy.

“It doesn’t help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown--a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid, professional woman--mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another lifestyle choice,” Quayle said in the speech.

The speech prompted fierce debate over the role of the family in American society, and the White House seemed to back away from Quayle’s position, with spokesman Marlin Fitzwater calling the TV character’s choice to have the baby “a responsible decision.”

Spencer Abraham, co-chairman of National Republican Congressional Committee, also appearing on the “Face the Nation,” said Quayle’s speech was an effort to hold society together, rather than divide it.

“I think the vice president was trying to draw the distinction between the important role that traditional values can play in keeping society together, not dividing society,” Abraham said.