How fitting that Dan Quayle, a bumbling excuse for a vice president of the United States, should end up as a top executive of a $20 billion private equity firm mired in controversy. Quayle, who signed on with Cerberus in 1999, was with that company during its takeover and subsequent bankruptcy of Chrysler, questionable military contracting deals in Afghanistan and, most recently, manufacturing the assault rifle used in the Newtown, Conn., massacre.
The former Indiana senator, to whom most of us in the press corps covering George H.W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 1988 referred to as the Ken doll, must have found life in the private sector so much more rewarding, but how much so is not known, since Cerberus is privately held.
Dan and his son Ben Quayle, a congressman from Indiana, have been ardent supporters of the NRA, but even they must have been shocked by the latest — and not only — incident involving one of Cerberus’ product lines. The company now acknowledges that its gun unit, Freedom Group Inc. — which refers to itself as “the largest manufacturer of commercial firearms and ammunition,” sold in 80 countries — is a public relations embarrassment and has put it up for sale.
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