Ben Quayle Chip Off The Old Blockhead

I thought that Eric Massa from New York took the cake for weird politicians.  But now we have a new contender, one with a serious pedigree.  Meet Former Vice President Dan Quayle’s son, Ben, who is running for Congress in Arizona.  For those of you to young to remember Dan Quayle combined the media savvy of Joe Biden with the deafening cluelessness of Sarah Palin wrapped in Sears catalog model “good looks” that Republicans seem to love.

And for some reason American voters put him a heartbeat away from the Presidency.  Luckily we only had to live with that fear for only four years.  Anyhow, his son Ben is now the Republican candidate for Arizona’s 3rd U.S. Congressional District. Ben first made noise creating campaign ads with kids to help establish his credentials as a serious “family values” kind of guy.

It’s not a stretch to make the assumption that the girls are his daughters. But that’s not the case. The recently married Quayle doesn’t have kids.  The mailer reads that Quayle and his wife live in Phoenix with their dog, Louie. No mention of kids.

The second mailer, a pro-life piece that explains his staunch opposition to abortion and support of traditional marriage, contains the same image of the girls. But this time, there’s no disclaimer about Quayle not yet having kids of his own.

So is Quayle intentionally trying to leave voters with the impression that he’s a “family man”? And not some newbie lacking any political experience who is trading on his family name?

Quayle was a frequent target of his GOP opponents – all of whom were older than him and have children – for what they called his thin resume and lack of life experience.  Campaign rival Vernon Parker accused Quayle of “renting a family.”  After lots of media inquiry, the Quayle camp admitted first that the kids belonged to a staffer and then that they were his nieces.

Then Ben Quayle denied and then partially admitted that he blogged under the porn-star-inspired pseudonym “Brock Landers” of Boogie Nights fame.  As Landers, the pro-family values candidate, blogged about his search for the hottest girl in Scottsdale for a website called Dirty Scottsdale.

The site’s founder, Nik Richie told POLITICO that Quayle was “one of the original contributors” to the site when it started in 2007. The idea behind Dirty Scottsdale was simple: Solicit photographs of Scottsdale club goers, post them online, and comment on the appearance and behavior of people in the pictures.

“We are looking to bring you the best trash this city has to offer,” the site’s original description said.  The site has since been rebranded The Dirty.com.  Richie said Quayle cut ties with him and Dirty Scottsdale after what had been an underground gag site among friends began attracting millions of hits.

“He shut it down. He restructured his life knowing that one day he would run for public office,” Richie said. “He said, ‘I cannot have any involvement, and you cannot tell a soul I am part of Dirty Scottsdale because it would ruin any political chance I would have in the future.’”

Quayle told POLITICO he does know Richie, and that he met him through Richie’s ex-wife. “I can’t remember exactly where,” Quayle said.

Right.

Ben seems like he’s on the road to being just as special as Dan.  Below are some of Dan’s greatest public speaking hits courtesy of You Tube and Snopes.com

* “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.”

* “Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.”

* “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.”

* “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. I mean in this century’s history. But we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century.”

* “I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.”

* “One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared.’”

* “Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.”

* “I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.”

* “The future will be better tomorrow.”

* “We’re going to have the best-educated American people in the world.”

* “People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.”