Bumper Sticker Campaign Rebuts Quayle Comments : Politics: Santa Ana home repairman funds ‘Murphy Brown for President’ drive after vice president’s criticism of fictional ‘lifestyle choice.’

SANTA ANA —  The bumper stickers rolling off the presses Wednesday night expressed Ed McKie’s message to the world: Murphy Brown for President.

McKie, a 34-year-old home repairman, said he hired a printing company to make the stickers because, “I just got so fed up with all this Dan Quayle talk about single women being the blame for the (Los Angeles) riots.

“If (the stickers) are on bumpers of cars, maybe people will open their eyes and see what’s going on. I am going to put my two cents in.”

Earlier this week, Vice President Quayle said that the riots were caused by a breakdown of American family values and that prime-time television had been a contributing factor.

This week’s “Murphy Brown” episode, Quayle said, mocked “the importance of fathers by (Brown’s) bearing a child alone, and calling it just another ‘lifestyle choice.”’

The bumper stickers will cost McKie more than two cents, although he didn’t know Wednesday night what the bill would be. Nevertheless, he planned to give them away.

“I think Dan Quayle maybe should not be watching TV and should be out on the street talking to people, finding out why women have children without husbands,” said McKie, a registered Democrat.

McKie said he likes the fact that Murphy Brown is “always against politicians.” His favorite episode, he added, was one in which she finally is refused admittance to President Bush’s news conference.