Senator Lloyd Bentsen died the other day so we might as well take another look at the only thing most people remember him for — his putdown of Dan Quayle in the 1988 presidential debate. I'm not sure many people even remember that Bentsen was the running mate to Michael Dukakis that year. They just recall the public slapping.
I watched the debate that night with some folks over at Harlan Ellison's while Harlan ignored his guests and (quite properly) devoted himself to a rabid and frothing deadline. Mothra could have descended on the block and it would not have pried the man away from his manual typewriter and the paper whizzing through it. Still, when Bentsen delivered that line, we gave out a whoop — not necessarily in approval — and Harlan poked his head out of his office to ask what the heck had happened. Someone told him, "Bentsen just made Quayle look like an idiot" and he muttered, "This is news?" and went back to work.
Of course, it was mainly Quayle who made Quayle look bad that night. The reporters kept asking him what he'd do if the president was killed or disabled and it became necessary for him to assume the office. He kept responding like you or I would if we were asked how one goes about performing a large bowel resection. He just looked clueless and tried to ad-lib a response to a topic about which he seemed to have no idea, even though it's the most important thing (and darn near the only thing) a Vice-President of the United States of America might have to do.
He especially looked bad when he had no real answer to Bentsen's unclassy remark. I always thought he wouldn't have become quite the laughingstock he became if he'd fired back with something like, "People underestimated Jack Kennedy when he was in the Senate. I hope someday to have you say the same of me, Senator." Instead, his deer-in-the-headlights response may not have cost his ticket any states but it and a few public gaffes sure cost him any political future after his one term as veep.
Here's the clip. Bentsen, for whom I had little respect, actually made some very good points in that debate and would easily have been hailed as the winner without this line. It was a moment that made me feel both guys deserved to lose.