Though the folks in Quayle Country don’t much cotton to the views of the “cultural elite,” you won’t hear much disagreement in these parts with the recent pronouncement that Dan Quayle is history. A number of prescient local citizens have been saying it proudly for years, and their diligent efforts to gather memorabilia during Quayle’s abbreviated term as vice president will culminate this month in the opening of an entire Dan Quayle Center and Museum.
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Inhabitants of this sleepy burg 159 miles east of Chicago have been unflinchingly loyal to their underdog since the beginning of his curious ascent from bush-league politics to the Bush White House. They came out in droves in the summer of 1988 for his public appearance here following his appendage to the Republican presidential ticket, and they shouted down members of the press who dared pose questions regarding his draft avoidance, his lackluster academic record, and an alleged dalliance with onetime Playboy model Paula Parkinson. The eerie presence of Secret Service snipers on the courthouse eaves and Pia Zadora singing in the square signaled the beginning of what would be the town’s tense if not predictably unpleasant brush with national celebrity.
That something, an exhibit assembled in a small room at the local library, was an odd assortment of personal and political artifacts, including a lock of Quayle’s baby hair, some grammar-school report cards (no surprises), a decidedly unflattering wedding photo that later found its way into the pages of Spy magazine, his Little League uniform, and a purse that belonged to his mother. Not exactly what you’d call vice presidential material, but it appealed to the earnest as well as those with a sense of the ironic.
Dan Quayle’s profile has become considerably lower since he went to work at the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank in Indianapolis, but don’t think for a minute that you’ve seen the last of him. He may be history, but he’s busy at work on his memoirs, and he may just show up when the museum is officially dedicated sometime later this year.
