All right!  The Quayle Family Dynasty is ON!  Time to bring out your old Dan Quayle jokes.

Or, start with the Ben Quayle jokes.

It is another pseudonym, however, that may have a greater effect on Mr. Quayle’s chances of following his father into politics. He was hammered in the primary when the owner of a local risqué Web site said that Mr. Quayle had been an occasional contributor, commenting on the physical attributes of women and using the name Brock Landers, a porn star character in the movie “Boogie Nights.”

Mr. Quayle’s Democratic challenger, a lawyer and businessman named Jon Hulburd, was quick to pounce on Wednesday, issuing a statement saying, “This election is now between Jon Hulburd and Brock Landers.”

Mr. Quayle brushed off the attacks. “You build thick skin being a Quayle,” he said, noting that his father had been giving him this advice: “Don’t let the sideshow get you down.”

There was a strange denoument to this primary campaign — sometime after Ben Quayle, and by extension Dan Quayle, eked a bit into national conciosuness by calling Obama the “Worst President Ever” —   Dan Quayle stepped up to the plate to protect the integrity of his son.

Dan Quayle sent Ben’s supporters an e-mail Monday night, Politico reports, in which he addressed the allegations, writing, “With the recent turn of events, I cannot, in good conscience, remain silent.”

Ben Quayle’s leading opponent, businessman Steve Moak, ran an ad hammering Quayle for his association with the site.

“I took my fair share of outrageous slams in politics, but Steve Moak’s vicious smear against my son is over the top and unprecedented,” Dan Quayle wrote. “I have never in my 35 years of politics seen such an ugly, slanderous assault in the closing days of a campaign against a fellow Republican.”

Now, granted — there is a heck of a lot of Political Nepotism in play in politics, and a lot of people voting essentially for the prefigures of the “jr” running in various seats of influence, and a lot of trading off of names.  But shouldn’t Dan Quayle just be standing there in the background of your Ben Quayle rally?

Skim the comments section and see how many references to a “potatoe” you will find.  Note the Christian Science Monitor article on the “Worst President” comment.  It’s right there in the headline.  “Potatote”.

The Quayle apologists always point to this or that gaffe made by Senator Al Gore during the 1992 presidential campaign, and point out he was elected in Indiana several times.  Which is just as well.  There is no particular point in Quayle jokes these days.  They all morphed into Bush jokes in the last decade — when email chains were passed out that rolled through a bunch of mis-attributed quotations from one that actually belonged to the other.

In today’s climate, we have Palin — who takes the jokes and slings more stridently and seriously than Quayle ever did– and makes war with David Letterman.

A curious thing about Palin.  We keep swerving with a storyline about whether her endorsements are going anywhere.  She endorsed Clint Didier in Washington, and look how that campaign flamed out!  Well, she has a new nomination under her belt in her home state.  Joe Miller tripped up Incumbent Lisa Murkowski off the strength of Palin.  The Democratic National Committee wants to make believe that this is to the Democrats benefit.
I want to believe in the Democratic candidate’s chances.  But really, they don’t believe their words either.

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday released a memo characterizing the Alaska GOP primary as an example of the “ongoing fued” between the Tea Party movement and the Republican establishment.Meanwhile, questions arose about whether the Democratic party was ready to get behind their candidate — McAdams. As mentioned above, in an interview on Wednesday, DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse could not remember his name.
At a press conference that same day, McAdams dismissed speculation that the party may want to replace him with a more well-known candidate, the Alaska Dispatch reports.
One thought for McAdams: supposedly polls show Palin unpopular in her homestate, though apparently still with an edge with her homestate Republican Party.  You’re running against her.  Still probably not going to win with that, but you’re going with your best shots.

But, is Sarah Palin again a “King Maker” once again — never mind Didier?  Well, she’s collecting her chits for whatever it is her national political ambitions are.  I don’t know what we can say about Utah and Alaska trading in their one party Republicans for “Tea Party”ers — at least Florida is giving us a three party choice (eventually Democrats are going to have to take a plunge and make a gut choice, select the Bob Dole backed Crist en masse or hope Meeks can edge in with 40 percent of the electorate), and Pennsylvania is giving two party choice, and from there you down-shift to incumbents not being taken out so much as one given the edge over the other — the lesser Paul in Kentucky, the Nevada question.

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