Ben Quayle's new ad: Obama worst president ever

[August 12, 2010]  PHOENIX (AP) -- The son of former Vice President Dan Quayle unveiled a TV campaign ad Wednesday in his bid for Congress in which he calls President Barack Obama "the worst president in history" and tells Arizona voters that he wants to "knock the hell" out of Washington.

Ben Quayle's provocative ad, aimed at voters in Arizona's 3rd Congressional District ahead of the Aug. 24 GOP primary, was released amid allegations that he posted items under an alias for a racy social website a few years ago.

In the campaign ad, the 33-year-old Quayle faces the camera directly and begins by saying, "Barack Obama is the worst president in history." Quayle's generation will "inherit a weakened country," he says.

He goes on to implore voters to send him to Congress: "I love Arizona. I was raised right. Somebody has to go to Washington and knock the hell out of the place."

The ad was to begin airing Wednesday on Phoenix-area TV stations, and was posted on the Internet. Quayle's campaign would not reveal the amount of the ad buy.

Quayle, who is a lawyer and managing director of a Scottsdale, Ariz., investment firm, has never held elected office. But he has emerged as the top fundraiser in the crowded field of 10, and profits from name recognition that comes with being the son of Dan Quayle, the former Indiana senator and vice president under George H.W. Bush.

Recent controversy over the racy website, which was aimed at detailing Scottsdale's nightlife, has livened up the race, with Quayle's campaign this week calling allegations that he once was heavily involved in the site a "smear of the sort that has been trafficked by several of the candidates in this campaign for months." The campaign suggested the allegations, first reported by Politico, might have come from a publicist for one of Quayle's competitors.

Quayle has admitted that he knew the site's founder, Nik Richie, and once referred him to a lawyer. When asked Tuesday whether he wrote for Richie's site, Quayle told The Associated Press that he "wrote a couple of satirical and fictional pieces for a satirical website" but that he quit doing so once the website shifted its editorial direction away from satire.

Quayle said he couldn't recall what his posts involved or when he made them.

Richie said Quayle contributed items in 2007 under the alias "Brock Landers."

"He was the guy, that you know, people would send pictures to of hot chicks, and he would put together who he thought was that hottest girl and why," said Richie, whose legal name is Hooman Karamian.

Quayle hopes to replace retiring Republican Rep. John Shadegg in the GOP-leaning district that covers parts of Phoenix and Scottsdale and some rural areas to the north.

[Associated Press; By MICHELLE PRICE]

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