WASHINGTON INSIGHT

ROAMING THE RIM: On a jaunt to the Pacific Rim, former Vice President Dan Quayle spiffed up his foreign policy credentials for a possible presidential run--and hustled up contacts for his new business: advising currency traders. Quayle met with government and business leaders in Japan, China and Taiwan, whose taxpayers picked up all the expenses. “The trip was to assure old friends out in Asia that America continues to be interested in the security of the Pacific as well as maintaining relations,” said Karl D. Jackson, Quayle’s business associate and former national security adviser, who traveled with him. . . . In contrast with the $2 million paid to former President Ronald Reagan on a 1989 speaking tour of Japan, Quayle took no honorarium for his one speech to a think tank linked to Japan’s Foreign Ministry. “Quite frankly, it (the much-criticized Reagan fee) crossed my mind when I was arranging the trip,” Jackson said.