Quayle Tunes Out

Dan Quayle walked out of a John Mellencamp concert in Lake Tahoe, Calif., after the singer badmouthed the Bush administration.

Quayle – like Mellencamp, an Indiana native – was in the neighborhood for a celebrity golf tournament and attended the July 14th concert at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino.

Things turned sour for the former vice president when Mellencamp introduced a recent song, “Walk Tall,” by saying, “This next one is for all the poor people who’ve been ignored by the current administration.”

Quayle left the building after the comment, and later voiced his dissatisfaction to the Los Angeles Times.

“He wasn’t going to sit there and listen to this,” spokesman Craig Whitney told the paper.

Mellencamp was unaware that Quayle was in the audience and said he had no regrets.

“Not talking about problems doesn’t make them go away,” the singer/songwriter told the Times. “It’s kind of telling that he chose to walk out as I was doing a song about tolerance.”

Basketball legend and erstwhile Republican Charles Barkley, who was also at the tournament, sided with Mellencamp.

“I was a Republican until they lost their minds,” Barkley told reporters.