George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

prepared by Fuller and Ailes. Ed Rollins, attuned to the Reagan Democrats, could not
believe that Quayle was being seriously considered. But now, at Belle Chase Naval Air
Station north of New Orleans, Bush told his staffs that he had chosen Dan Quayle. Not
only was it Quayle, but Bush's thyroid was now in overdrive: he wanted to announce his
selection within hours. Quayle was contacted by telephone and instructed to meet Bush at
the dock in New Orleans when the paddle-wheel steamer Natchez brought Bush down the
Missisippi to that city's Spanish Plaza.
Quayle turned up at the dock in a state of inebriated euphoria, grabbing Bush's arm,
prancing and capering around Bush. Bush was momentarily taken aback: had he engaged
a dervish? As soon as the dossiers on Quayle came out, a few questions were posed. Had
his senate office been a staging point for contra resupply efforts? One of the Iran-contra
figures, Rob Owen, had indeed worked for Quayle, but Quayle denied everything. Had
Quayle, now a hawk, been in Vietnam? Tom Brokaw asked Quayle if he had gotten help
in joining the National Guard as a way of ducking the draft? Quayle stammered that it
had been twenty years earlier, but maybe "phone calls were made." Then Dan Rather
asked Quayle what his worst fear was. "Paula Parkinson," was the reply. This was the
woman lobbyist and Playboy nude model who had been present with Quayle at a wild
weekend at a Florida country club back in 1980. The Bush image-mongers hurriedly
convened damage control sessions, and Quayle was given two professional handlers,
Stuart Spencer and Joe Canzeri. Spencer was an experienced GOP operative who had
done public relations and consulting work worth $350,000 for Gen. Noriega of Panama
during the mid-1980's. [fn 37] After a couple of Bush-Quayle joint appearances before
groups of war veterans to attempt to dissipate Quayle's National Guard issue, Quayle was
then shunted into the secondary media markets under the iron control of his new
handlers.
Although Bush's impulsive proclamation of his choice of Quayle does indeed raise the
question of the hyperthyroid snap decision, the choice of Quayle was not impuslve, but
rather perfectly coherent with Bush's profile and pedigree. Bush told Baker that Quayle
had been "my first and only choice." [fn 38] Bush's selection of political appointees is
very often the product of Bush-Walker family alliances over more than a generation, as in
the case of Baker, Brady, Boy Gray, and Henry Kravis, or at least of a long and often
lucrative business collaboration, as in the case of Mosbacher. The choice of Quayle lies
somewhere in between, and was strengthened by a deep ideological affinity in the
question of racism.
J. Danforth Quayle's grandfather was Eugene C. Pulliam, who built an important press
empire starting with his purchase of the Atchison (Kansas) Champion in 1912. The bulk
of these papers were in Indiana, the home state of the Pulliam clan, and in Arizona.
"Gene" Pulliam had died in 1975, but his newspaper chain was worth an estimated $1.4
by the time Dan Quayle became a household word. Pulliam was a self-proclaimed
ideologue: "If I wanted to make money, I'd go into the bond business. I've never been
interested in the money I make but the influence we have." [fn 39] Gene Pulliam was one
of the first power brokers to encourage the political career of young Barry Goldwater in
1949 through the support of the Pulliam Arizona Republic and Gazette of Phoenix. When