Quayle to GOP: Be wary of Tea Party revolt

Former Vice President Dan Quayle is urging Republican leadership to reach out to to Tea Party voters, fearing a failure to do so could result in a 1992-redux.

In an op-ed to appear in Sunday's edition of the Washington Post, Quayle compares the Tea Party movement to the support for independent candidate Ross Perot in 1992. Bill Clinton defeated incumbent George H. W. Bush in that election, with Perot earning 19 percent of the vote.

Quayle asserts that most of those voters would have gone for his ticket in the absence of a third-party candidate. He writes, "to this day we firmly believe that Perot cost the Republican Party the White House."

Conversely, Quayle argues that the Republican's embrace of the a tax revolt movement that began in the late 1970s allowed Ronald Reagan to reach the Presidency.

Quayle writes, "As Reagan did 30 years ago, Republican leaders between now and 2012 should reach out, as Sarah Palin has done, to an independent grassroots movement whose energy and conviction the party badly needs."

Arguing that Tea Party demonstrators side with the GOP on issues of fiscal spending and national security, Quayle writes, "Whether they count themselves as Republicans, independents, libertarians or conservative Democrats, these are our folks -- the natural allies of the party of Reagan."