Quayle Continues to Drop Hints of Clinton’s Infidelity

Vice President Dan Quayle Sunday made a last frantic dash through the swing state of Ohio, dropping hints as he went that Democratic standard bearer Bill Clinton lacks fidelity.

Speaking to reporters at the airport here, Quayle said that what the American people want “is a President who has been faithful to his country, faithful to his principles, faithful to his family. And George Bush certainly is that man.”

Asked if he specifically was calling Clinton unfaithful, Quayle replied: “I’ll let others answer that.”

Quayle repeatedly has attacked Clinton’s truthfulness. He has only hinted about allegations regarding Clinton’s unfaithfulness to his wife.

Quayle flirted with that topic again Sunday when he charged that Clinton had failed the character test applied by Democrats when the late Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.), nominated to be secretary of defense by then-newly elected President Bush, was defeated in his confirmation battle.

Quayle said that, in discussing Tower’s nomination, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) “talked about women. He talked about alcohol. He talked about conflict of interest. He talked about three categories.”

Quayle asserted that Clinton failed “the Tower test” because of his varied and contradictory statements about his draft record. But the vice president stopped short of directly condemning Clinton for infidelity.

The vice president revisited the trust theme during a stop in Portsmouth, Ohio.

“Would you trust Bill Clinton to take care of your family?” Quayle asked a crowd of several hundred at the U.S. Grant Middle School. “Would you trust Bill Clinton with your children?”

As the crowd responded with a resounding “No,” Quayle added: “Then let’s make sure we don’t exchange George and Barbara Bush for Bill and Hillary Clinton.”

Quayle visited the two-bedroom clapboard home in Portsmouth, where he had spent the first 18 months of his life. He lived in the modest house when his father was advertising sales manager at the Portsmouth Times.

The vice president used the visit to try to make a favorite point: that despite the multimillion-dollar fortune of his maternal grandfather, Eugene Pulliam, he came from modest beginnings.

“This is another example of the wealthy silver-spoon background that you people in the media have been reporting all these years,” he told reporters as he left the house.

The Quayle campaign also touched down in the western Kentucky city of Hopkinsville. But torrential rains and tornadoes forced cancellation of a later Quayle rally in Louisiana, another state where the race is tight.