Lloyd Bentsen, who died Tuesday at 85, represented Texas in the American Congress for 28 years and served as President Clinton’s first secretary to the treasury; but he was probably best known for his performance as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1988.

As Mike Dukakis’s running-mate in the presidential election, it was Bentsen who contributed the most memorable quote of the campaign when, in a televised debate, his Republican opposite number, Dan Quayle, claimed to have had as much experience in Congress as John F. Kennedy had enjoyed when he ran for president.

Bentsen replied: “Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy. I served with Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

During the campaign Bentsen was scornful of the Republicans’ running of the economy under Ronald Reagan: “It is easy enough to create the illusion of prosperity,” he said. “All you have to do is write hot checks for $200 billion a year. And that’s what the Reagan-Bush administration has done. That’s how they doubled our national debt in seven years.” He was unable to persuade the electorate, however, and George Bush won the White House.

The oldest of four children, Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. was born in Mission, Texas, on February 11, 1921, the son of a large landowner. After high school, Bentsen studied business and law at the University of Texas, and in 1942 joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, becoming commander of a B-24 bomber squadron. He was awarded the DFC and the Air Medal with three oakleaf clusters, and ended the war in the rank of major.

In 1946, aged 25, Bentsen became a county judge in Texas. Two years later he was elected to the House of Representatives. At only 27, he was its youngest member. He advocated using the atomic bomb in the Korean War and, later, American involvement in Indochina; but he was a liberal on social issues, such as civil rights.

After serving three terms, Bentsen temporarily left politics to forge a career in business. With $5 million provided by his father, he set up Lincoln Consolidated, a financial services company based in Houston. In 1970 he returned to the political arena, and was selected by the Democrats in Texas to fight George Bush for a seat in the Senate. He won, and was thrice re-elected.

In 1976 Bentsen ran for the presidency, but withdrew when he realized that he would be unable to beat Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination.

Always pro-business, Bentsen remained generally more right-wing on foreign affairs and the economy than on social issues, supporting Reagan’s defense policies and aid to the Contras in Nicaragua; but he favored sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa, and opposed the resolution authorizing the use of force to expel the Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1990.

From 1986 to 1992 Bentsen was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, often criticizing Presidents Reagan and Bush for what he saw as their neglect of the budget deficit. His term began inauspiciously when, as part of a fund-raising scheme, he offered members of the public the chance to meet him at a series of breakfasts that cost $10,000 per head. Such was the outcry that Bentsen had to cancel the breakfasts, issue a public apology, and refund the money raised.

His successful performance as vice presidential candidate in the 1988 election convinced some that Bentsen might run for the White House in 1992, but he made no such attempt; instead he acted as an adviser to Mr. Clinton on tax and the economy. His reward was to be made the new administration’s principal economic spokesman, Mr. Clinton explaining: “I wanted someone who had the unique capacity to command the respect of Wall Street, while showing an unrelenting concern for the Americans who make their living on Main Street.” When he came to the job in 1993 the administration’s aim was to cut the federal deficit and create millions of new jobs.

Within a month he also had to deal with the fall-out from the inept raid on the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas, by the Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. But he won admiration for his smooth handling of Congress.

In the event Bentsen remained in post only until December 1994, when he resigned because “I want to go back to Texas, to my roots and return to the private sector while I still have a spring in my step”. Some suspected that he had no appetite for dealing with the Whitewater affair, due to be investigated by the newly-Republican Congress.

After leaving the administration Bentsen became a partner in the Washington law firm of Verner, Lipfert, Bernhard, McPherson, and Hand.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999.

Lloyd Bentsen had two sons and a daughter with his wife, Beryl Ann Longino, a fashion model whom he married in 1943. When they were leaving a party, he would invariably throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of the door; but he abandoned the practice in 1991 after breaking one of her ribs.