Quayle Pushes Family Values, Lashes Critics

Portraying himself as an implacable defender of traditional values, Vice President Dan Quayle declared in his acceptance speech Thursday that he remains “unbowed, unbroken and ready to keep fighting” against critics he said have tried to destroy him.

In a prepared speech that he hopes will launch a political rebirth, Quayle described himself to the Republican National Convention as a man who has defiantly stood up for the values of “faith, family and freedom” against the mockery of opponents.

“I know my critics wish I were not standing here tonight,” Quayle said. “They don’t like our values. They look down on our beliefs . . . . And they know the American people stand on our side.

“That is why when someone confronts them and challenges them, they will stop at nothing to destroy him.”

The speech demonstrated how Quayle has given the theme of family values an importance that overshadows all else--including the economic growth that many consider the key issue of the campaign. The economy, a much tougher issue for incumbents, received only brief and indirect mention in the vice president’s address.

The speech was vital for Quayle. With it, he needed to burnish his image with the broader electorate, breathe new life into the Republican campaign and lay the groundwork for his own ambitions as a conservative contender in the 1996 presidential race.

Quayle seemed to suggest that his Democratic opponents have moral failings as well as faulty political views.

In a comment that appeared to associate the Democrats with the homosexual rights movement, Quayle said the two parties stand on opposite sides of a “cultural divide.”

“All too often, parents struggle to instill character in their sons and daughters--only to see their values belittled and their beliefs mocked by those who look down on America,” Quayle said. “Americans try to raise their children to understand right and wrong--only to be told that every so-called ‘lifestyle alternative’ is morally equivalent. That is wrong.”

The gap between the two sides of the divide “is not just a difference between conservative and liberal; it is a difference between fighting for what is right and refusing to see what is wrong,” Quayle said.

A Quayle aide, asked if the “cultural gap” reference was a suggestion that the Democrats have moral shortcomings, said “that’s the logical conclusion” of the vice president’s words.

“Or,” he said, “at least, their morality is different--not the same as mainstream America.”

Quayle spoke about his Indiana upbringing, which he depicted as simple and middle class and not at all like the privileged background often derided by his critics.

“I had an upbringing like many in my generation--a life built around family, public school, Little League, basketball and church on Sunday,” he said. Quayle said he and his wife, Marilyn, “have tried to teach our children these values, like faith in God, love of family, and appreciation for freedom.”

But “when family values are undermined,” he warned, “our country suffers.”

Repeating a favorite refrain, he said that for more than a month “the media have been telling us that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are ‘moderates.’ Well, if they’re moderates, I’m a world champion speller,” he said, poking fun at himself for his misspelling of potato earlier this summer at a New Jersey elementary school.

But though Quayle was pugnacious on family values, he seemed to be trying to build bridges to some of the women he may have alienated when he criticized unmarried sitcom character Murphy Brown for giving birth to a child.

He said he and his wife “have taught our children to respect single parents and their challenges--challenges that faced my grandmother many years ago and my own sister today.” Quayle has a sister who has recently gone through a bitter divorce.

Although he heavily stressed family values in his speech, Quayle only indirectly mentioned the issue of abortion, which has divided the Republican Party this year.

He said he and his wife have taught their children about adoption--the alternative to abortion that is preferred by anti-abortion activists--and noted that his own parents adopted twins when he was 10 years old.

And though he has lashed the Democrats for what he considers their extreme environmental views, Quayle mentioned that issue only once, saying only that the GOP ticket wants “a clean environment.”

Quayle hammered the opposition for their ties to Congress’ Democratic leaders, whom the Republicans blame for so many of the nation’s problems. He contended that the Democrats “hid their congressional leaders” from the TV audience during their July convention in New York.

“Maybe it was a slick idea to keep those Democratic congressmen and senators under wraps,” he said, referring as he often does to Clinton’s derisive nickname, “Slick Willie.” He added: “There is only one thing to say about the spend-everything, block-everything, know-nothing Democratic Congress: It is time for them to go.”

The phrase mocked Quayle’s Democratic counterpart, vice presidential nominee Sen. Al Gore, who--during his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention--repeatedly said of the Administration: “It is time for them to go.”

Quayle cited his efforts to cut down on federal regulation and litigation and to reform public school systems by giving students tax benefits that would help parents pay for private schooling.

The Republicans are “the true voice for change,” he said, “and we do not take our marching orders from special interests.”

Pressing for legal reform, education reform, deregulation and congressional term limits, “we’ve taken on the strongest forces of the status quo--and we will not back down,” Quayle said. “And on behalf of family values, we’ve taken on Hollywood and the media elite--and we will not back down.”

A Quayle aide stressed the importance that the vice president attaches to the speech.

“I think he thinks of this speech as more than a typical acceptance speech,” the aide said. “He has become a figure in American politics who has come to be seen to stand for certain things, for certain principles and a point of view.”

The vice president saw the talk as an opportunity to capture the attention of a national audience--with minimal intervention of press commentators. “It’s an opportunity to say who he is, where he comes from and what he stands for to a national audience, and for the first time in four years,” the aide said.

Another aide said that, although little in the speech was new to those who have followed the campaign, “it’s all new to 90% of the American people. This may be the best expression” of Quayle’s views.

The speech was the last and perhaps most important part of an image-building effort that the vice president and his staff have undertaken throughout the convention week.

Through speeches and a carefully controlled schedule of interviews, they have tried to project a new image of the vice president as a determined, good-natured and much-maligned family man.

The acceptance speech was preceded by a four-minute film biography that sought to reinforce the image of Quayle’s home life and career.

Quayle’s recent effort to strengthen his ties to women voters also was evident Wednesday night, when his nomination was seconded by three women.

They included a breast-cancer patient, Zora Brown; a woman senatorial candidate, Charlene Haar of South Dakota, and a divorced mother, Donna Sims, who wrote Quayle to praise his attack on the Murphy Brown character.

If the vice president scored with the speech, it would come none too soon for him. In the aftermath of the “potato” incident and his attack on Murphy Brown, Quayle’s negative ratings generally have been rising. One pre-convention poll found nearly two-thirds of respondents disapproving of his job performance.