Vice President Dan Quayle, in the toughest White House attack yet on independent Ross Perot, said Friday it would be a "very bad idea" to replace President Bush with "some temperamental tycoon" who has contempt for the Constitution.
Quayle also told a lawyers group in Washington that Perot would nullify democracy "with a bizarre scheme of government by polls."While Bush has refrained from taking on the Texas billionaire before the presidential campaign gets under way, Quayle took up the cudgels at the meeting of lawyers.
His speech was based on the theme that ticket-splitting and divided government make for a gridlock of inaction in Washington.
Quayle argued that "Ross Perot wouldn't fix the deadlock between the elected branches" with Congress controlled by the Democrats and the White House in the hands of the Republicans. Instead, Quayle said, "It would make things worse."
"A president cannot `get something done' just because he criticizes stalemate," Quayle said. "Ross Perot is a false solution to our problem. He would add to the gridlock, then compound the people's frustration by elevating the blame game to an art form.
"I'd like to say `talk is cheap,' but somehow that doesn't capture the spirit of the Perot campaign."