Quayle Predicts GOP Domination in Election

Former Vice President Dan Quayle said Republicans will dominate in the November election, in part because voters are yearning for a return to traditional family values and “integrity from our leaders” in the wake of the Clinton scandal.

Quayle, in town for a political fund-raiser for congressional hopeful Randy Hoffman, repeated his call for President Clinton to resign, saying he has tarnished the presidency and damaged the country.

Evidence that Clinton’s political support is quickly eroding came Thursday, Quayle said, when 31 Democrats in the House joined a Republican majority in voting to launch an impeachment inquiry.

“Today, more than anything, we need people with integrity,” Quayle, a potential candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000, told a crowd of Republican supporters at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.

Quayle headlined a campaign fund-raiser for Hoffman, the Republican candidate for the 24th Congressional District, which includes the West Valley and a portion of Ventura County. Hoffman, a Thousand Oaks businessman, is trying to unseat freshman Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

The event raised about $15,000 for Hoffman, who introduced Quayle as a man of integrity and “who I want to help in Washington, D.C.”

Quayle praised Hoffman for his strong family values and his work to battle domestic violence.

The former vice president also said Hoffman’s experience in the business world would be beneficial in a Congress dominated by lawyers. Hoffman’s success as president of Magellan Systems Corp., a San Dimas firm that makes hand-held satellite navigation systems, made him a millionaire.

Sherman said he wasn’t impressed with Quayle’s praise for Hoffman, since the two men barely know one another. Sherman said voters should be wary of the people Hoffman is relying on to help his campaign, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas.

“Unless Hoffman is willing to tell you where he stands on individual votes, then it’s fair to judge him by the people he associates with: Gingrich, Armey and Quayle,” Sherman said.

Sherman was in Washington on Thursday, where he voted against the Republican measure to launch an impeachment inquiry of Clinton. Sherman said the GOP proposal was too open-ended, and feared Republicans would keep the inquiry going “until the Iowa Caucuses.”

After the fund-raiser, Quayle said he expects the Clinton scandal, and the prospect of impeachment, to have a major impact on the presidential election in 2000. If the Republican-led Congress impeaches Clinton, elevating Vice President Al Gore to the White House and all its powers of incumbency, the GOP’s chances of winning the presidency will be diminished.

Still, Clinton must be removed from office “for the good of the country,” Quayle said.