preserving single quotes

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've done this before but I can't remember the invocation.

   $ dd="echo howdy"

   $ ee=$($=dd); echo $ee
   howdy

   $ dd="aptitude search '?name(libreoffice-java-common)'"

   $ ee=$($=dd); echo $ee

   $ (no output)


... I have to be able to run the aptitude command with the single quotes 
intact.  I've tried every little trick that's worked before but I'm just 
not finding the magic.