Merit, as her prom queen sister Nancy nicknamed her, was the family bookworm, a brainy girl inculcated with the Indianapolis values of her wealthy, conservative, God-fearing physician parents. After breezing through Purdue in political science, she was pursuing a career in law and her mind was made up: She wanted a name for herself, not a husband, not children. And then she fell in love with a fraternity jock named Dan.
Eight months` pregnant and determined not to miss her bar exam, Dan`s ponytailed wife coolly instructed her obstetrician to induce an early birth. He did, little Tucker came into the world and Marilyn took the bar sitting, a friend remembers, ”on a little rubber doughnut.”
A few years later, she gave up her lawyer dreams when her smoothie made his first bid for Congress. She decided then why she had been put on this earth. ”You shake the hands,” she told him. ”I`ll do the rest.”
And for 13 years, that`s what Marilyn Quayle has been doing. It was she who orchestrated the response to pinup-lobbyist Paula Parkinson`s charge that the Republican candidate for vice president had once attempted a dalliance with her. (”Anybody who knows Dan Quayle knows he would rather play golf than have sex,” Marilyn quipped.)
It was she who had the candidate trot out a sack of garbage before the press in reply to inquiries into matters she considered ”irrelevant”-his academic and military record, for example, and her own family`s association with Col. Robert Thieme, the right-wing Houston evangelist. It was she, in a rare public relations misstep, who insisted that he compare himself in his campaign appearances with John F. Kennedy.
She remains his ardent defender, quick to unleash her fury on those, and there are many, who believe the vice president of the United States to be trivial. Recently, the 40-year-old Second Lady sat for a 90-minute chat in the vice presidential mansion at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Q-How have your children adjusted to vice presidential life?
A-They`ve been calling senators and congressmen by their first names for years, so it wasn`t as much of an adjustment as it might have been. Dan`s job, to them, is like any father moving up in his career. They don`t think it`s that big a deal and I don`t want them to. They`re normal, happy kids. I want them to stay that way.
Q-Yet they faced abnormal pressure during the campaign. Your daughter Corinne was so frightened by a mob of reporters greeting a campaign plane that she turned around on the ramp in panic. How badly did that scare her?
A-It scared me. One of those packs of journalists hit Benjamin in the head with a camera and knocked him down! It was not pleasant, definitely not for children. But (that experience) was an aberration. I don`t think anyone`s very proud of what went on down there.
Q-With the avalanche of negative publicity that you started with, is it true one of your sons was so hurt he left notes on your pillow?
A-Yes, Benjamin and his little friends would write rebuttals to every attack. Those kids and their families know Dan, and (the attacks) were shocking, so they closed in ranks around our kids and wouldn`t let anything touch them.
Q-But did your children ever come to you and ask why the press was attacking?
A-(Long pause) We were very open with the kids . . . and they never saw us get upset, so why should they be upset?
Q-But they were-and how could you not have been upset with the entire world zoning in on your husband`s weaknesses?
A-(Laughter) Yes, but you see, I knew what the truth was and that makes a big difference. I had real faith that the American people would see through the attacks . . . which they did.
Q-How did the Bushes help?
A-Right after the convention, when we flew back to Indiana, then on to Ohio and did parades with the Bushes, we were all laughing about what was going on. If you looked at the four of us in the limousine I don`t think anyone would have thought we had a care in the world. They gave us incredible support.
Q-And you needed it. What did you learn from being so relentlessly grilled on the question of Col. Thieme?
(According to Marilyn Quayle`s sister, Nancy Tucker Northcott, their parents ”played (Thieme`s) tapes all day every day.” Among other things, Thieme contends that the United States is threatened by satanic propaganda and creeping socialism.)
A-First of all, those questions were all based on things that were erroneous and that really made me angry. But what really angered me more than anything else was when my husband`s family members and my family-who weren`t a part of this decision-were bombarded, misquoted, treated shamefully. I don`t think anyone should have to put up with that. It will be a problem in getting good people wanting to hold office. After seeing what happened to us, who would want to go through that? It`s sad . . . very, very sad.
Q-So if your husband wasn`t a straight-A student, journalists spring into their attack mode?
A-Does it matter that the CEO of any major corporation wasn`t (a straight-A student) either? Or that Peter Jennings wasn`t? Once you`ve proven yourself, things you did when you were 19 shouldn`t make any difference at all. It`s your work performance that counts.
Q-It was as if the vice president`s 12 years in the House meant nothing.
A-That`s right. As if they hadn`t existed. Dan started his job on a far higher plane than anyone gives him credit for.
Q-Yet you can`t tune into Johnny Carson or ”Saturday Night Live”
without your husband`s being maligned and insulted.
A-Johnny Carson was booed the last time he did a Dan Quayle joke. People are realizing Dan`s doing a good job, that he`s a serious player in world affairs, that he`s not a joke.
Q-Perhaps one problem is the vice president`s misstatements.
A-Things come out wrong. So what? Everybody makes mistakes. Most people don`t have those sentences cut and spliced and flashing over and over and over again on TV.
Q-You`re saying TV journalists flash his mistakes relentlessly to make the point that somehow he`s just not competent?
A-Sure. Sure. It would be a pretty sorry world if people weren`t allowed to slip up and be human. You don`t want anyone who is rotely perfect running the country.
Q-Is Garry Trudeau popular in your house?
A-Not very. The family much prefers ”Marvin.”
Q-But what do you think of Trudeau`s attitude toward the vice president?
A-Not funny. Mean and vicious.
Q-Your husband wasn`t the only one to get the knife. How did you feel when your hairdo and inaugural hat were criticized?
A-Oh, I loved it. My mail quadruples whenever there is an attack on my appearance. I get tons of letters saying, ”We love you like you are; don`t change.”
Q-You`re very beautiful, so why do they attack you?
A-(Whispering) I have absolutely no idea.
Q-Is it true you had terrible problems finding an identity for yourself in Washington?
A-I wouldn`t say terrible problems. I was re-evaluating how I could best utilize my time. I realized that everything I did had the potential of being on the front page of a newspaper, and I certainly didn`t want to make any mistakes.
Q-As second ladies, Lady Bird Johnson chose gardening as her pet project, Joan Mondale American crafts. You were somewhat more adventurous.
A-It just evolved. I decided to spend the bulk of my time with preparedness and mitigation for natural disasters-hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, volcanos, in addition to some gray areas, like oil spills.
Q-Do you believe the weight of your name really helps?
A-More than I ever imagined. It really is a bully pulpit. . . . By my saying something is important, people listen.
Q-In fact, the headlines you make are more dramatic than those made by the First Lady. Is there any sense that the Second Lady should keep a lower profile than the First?
A-(Long pause) Barbara and I are very good friends, and I am not the type that seeks headlines and I have not gone out of my way to stage anything. I`m an emergency disaster employee of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). I don`t get paid; they send me places, and I work-it`s not a photo opportunity. I do everything very low-profile because this is serious business to me and I work at it. I do the job.
Q-How have your children felt about you and the vice president traveling so much?
A-They`re proud of me, though after I was sent down to Huntsville (Ala.), and after a trip to Mexico, Benjamin said, ”Mommm . . . hope the disasters stop so that you can stay at home. . .” But the work doesn`t stop me from riding, skiing, playing tennis, scuba diving, basketball, soccer and football. I do what I can.
Q-Sounds like you`re a damn good mother.
A-I don`t know. You never know until 20 years after.
Q-In terms of discipline, can your children watch anything on television they want?
A-No. During the school year, the children are not allowed to watch TV during the week.
