Have You Heard About Those GOP Rumors? : Politics: The Bush campaign has been slow to put out a message of its own. True to form, gossip and hearsay have swept in to fill the vacuum.

The President is ill. The vice president is ill. The vice president is not ill, but is about to quit the ticket. The President is about to quit the ticket.

Like the thunderstorms that soak the capital this time of year, rumors have blown in on the wind, drenching the White House. And for Bush and his aides, that news is bad.

A truism of politics holds that if a campaign does not generate its own news, it becomes the victim of other people’s stories. In 1988, Democrat Michael S. Dukakis left his convention, wandered aimlessly around Massachusetts for a few weeks, and promptly became a victim of a massive rumor surge, culminating in a groundless story that he had once consulted a psychiatrist to be treated for depression. Those rumors stopped the campaign’s momentum dead.

Four years later, George Bush is the seemingly aimless candidate, and he is beset by rumors, which point up a key weakness in Bush’s campaign: “If we were putting out a message of our own, you guys would have something else to ask about other than rumors,” said one senior White House aide. “We’re just not doing that.”

The recurrent rumors that Bush is going to quit the campaign because he suffers from various grave illnesses, seem to have no basis whatsoever. Like the psychiatrist rumors about Dukakis, which were spread by Republicans and finally forced into the news by a quip from then-President Ronald Reagan, the Bush health rumors seem to have been spread at least in part by Democrats hoping to drive the White House to distraction.

If that is the goal, the effort may have succeeded. By Monday, rumors about Bush’s health--not to mention Barbara Bush’s health and Marilyn Quayle’s health, all of which have been the subject of stories--had gotten so intense that White House doctor Burton J. Lee III took the unusual step of issuing an official denial.

The hottest of the latest stories--flatly denied and based on no apparent evidence--allege that Vice President Dan Quayle is about to resign from the ticket.

The story comes in many versions. One holds that Quayle has submitted his resignation. Another claims that Mrs. Quayle would feign illness to give her husband an excuse to quit.

None of the stories appears to be true, but all are fed by the same basic fact: Despite more than three years of effort to change his reputation, most Americans still do not think Quayle is capable of being President.

A poll by the Washington Post and ABC News earlier this week, for example, found that 46% of likely voters surveyed thought Bush should dump Quayle, while 40% felt Quayle should stay. Only 26% had a favorable image of the vice president, while 63% viewed him negatively.

But Quayle remains popular among conservatives, whose votes Bush needs. And Administration officials and friends insist that Quayle’s job is safe. The rumors are “being floated by the President’s opponents, who want to make him look panicky,” asserted one GOP operative.

Quayle aides, however, are not so sure. At least some think the story has been spread by others in the Administration, including some who might like Quayle’s job.

Times staff writer Sara Fritz contributed to this story.