Dornan Apologizes to Jewish Leaders for His ‘Ethnic Slur’

Following an outcry by Jewish leaders, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) apologized Friday for making an anti-Semitic remark on the floor of the House of Representatives.

On Thursday, Dornan had claimed that there was no need to apologize for his description of a Soviet commentator as “a disloyal, betraying little Jew.”

But on Friday, after Jewish leaders in Orange County and Washington demanded an explanation, Dornan called a press conference in Washington.

With several national Jewish leaders by his side, Dornan proclaimed his staunch support for world Jewry and apologized for his remark.

“I’m sorry if I gave any hurt,” Dornan said in a telephone interview after the press conference. Hurrying to finish an emotional two-minute speech in one minute, he said he had inadvertently made “an ethnic slur.”

“I was not even aware that those words had come together in my sentence. . . . If I brought them (Jewish leaders) any hurt, it was inadvertent,” Dornan said.

The congressman also telephoned four Orange County Jewish leaders who had been offended by his remarks to offer a personal apology.

And he told reporters in Washington that he had revised the Congressional Record so that his comments about American-born, Soviet commentator Vladimir Posner, now reads “betraying little turncoat” instead of “betraying little Jew.”

Harshly Critical

Posner had appeared on ABC television Wednesday, immediately following President Reagan’s speech on the defense budget, to comment on that speech. White House officials were harshly critical of ABC for giving Posner so much air time. And late this week, ABC executives acknowledged that they had made a mistake by letting Posner talk unchallenged for too long.

But Dornan, in an emotional speech to the House Thursday, offered some of the harshest criticism.

Shouting that Posner was “this little flunky ‘Vlady’ . . . (who) calls our president a liar,” Dornan described the commentator as “this disloyal, betraying little Jew who sits there on television claiming that he is somehow or other a newsman.”

Offended by Link to Religion

Jewish leaders stressed that they did not object to Dornan’s attack on ABC or the Soviet newsman’s role but that they were offended that Dornan had linked that attack to Posner’s religion.

In Dornan’s phrase, “the only word that’s missing is dirty--’dirty little Jew,’ ” Rabbi George Schlessinger, president of the Orange County Board of Rabbis, had said Thursday.

But by Friday afternoon, Schlessinger and three other Orange County Jewish leaders said that they were glad that Dornan had telephoned them and that they had accepted his apology.

Dornan had sounded “distressed” and “pained,” said Rabbi Bernard King, community relations chairman of the Jewish Federation of Orange County. And he had “just basically apologized for what he certainly did not intend to be an anti-Semitic slur. But it was certainly that,” King said.

‘A Short Fuse’

After speaking with Dornan on Friday, Schlessinger said: “Things come out that are not really intended when one has a short fuse like that.” But given Dornan’s apology--and the congressman’s “outstanding” record on human rights--”I would find it hard to believe he’s a bigot at heart,” Schlessinger said.

But two Democratic candidates for Dornan’s 38th District congressional seat used the occasion to attack.

Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove), said: “Once again Mr. Dornan has embarrassed the people of Orange County with his outrageous behavior and ethnic slurs. Bob Dornan should be attacking Posner’s totalitarian communist line rather than which God he believes in or who his parents were.”

‘Embarrassed Himself’

Another Democratic candidate, Superior Court Judge David C. Carter, declared that Dornan has “once again embarrassed himself and the people of Orange County before the House of Representatives.”

“I agree with President Reagan that ABC was wrong to allow Vladimir Posner, a Communist reporter, to criticize at length the President’s speech on national television,” Carter said.

But referring to Dornan’s remark, Carter said: “I think there are ways of responding that are not intemperate and bigoted.”

Another attack on Dornan Friday came from the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

Embassy spokesman Boris Malakhov said Friday that Dornan’s comments “not only grossly misrepresent Posner’s answers in an ABC interview but are also an outrageous anti-Semitic attack incompatible with elementary standards of civilized behavior.”

‘He’s Not Anti-Semitic’

Dornan late Friday said he was unconcerned by the Soviet statement. “That’s like the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) calling me an anti-Catholic,” said Dornan, a Catholic.

For all the contrition Friday, Dornan on Thursday evening had said he saw no need for an apology. And Friday morning, Dornan’s chief aide, Brian O’Leary Bennett, was adamant that no additional explanation was necessary.

“Look at what he was saying and don’t get caught up in two words,” Bennett said. “There’ll be no apology. It is not deserved. He is not anti-Semitic, and that’s that.”

But by Friday afternoon, at his Washington press conference, Dornan not only apologized, he presented statements of support from Jewish leaders and congressmen.

Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.) issued a statement calling Dornan “one of the loudest voices speaking out for Soviet Jewry. . . . In his anger at ABC and in his highly emotional state, he put together a statement which conveyed something he clearly did not intend. He quickly corrected the record.

“A misspoken phrase in a moment of heated debate should not be allowed to overshadow Bob’s long history of support and involvement with Israel, Soviet Jewry and other Jewish causes.”

Criticized a Year Ago

One year ago, Dornan had been criticized for making an allegedly anti-Semitic remark to Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass).

The incident occurred on March 6, 1985, when Dornan, appearing with Frank on a cable television station, remarked that “New York liberal Democrats only build F-15s for Israeli pilots, not for our pilots.” Dornan, at the time, apparently thought Frank was from New York, and Frank accused Dornan of being anti-Semitic. Dornan said later that he didn’t know that Frank was Jewish and meant no anti-Semitism by his remark.

Late Friday, Dornan was asked whether he planned to change his shoot-from-the-hip speaking style to avoid any similar statements in the future.

“If a shoot-from-the-hip style means my spontaneity, no,” the congressman said. “I will speak passionately when I’ve done my homework.

“What I will change is that I will never again speak ahead of myself and try to jam a two-minute speech into the traditional (one-minute) House opening speech. That’s a far cry from not speaking out on some issues,” Dornan said.

Times staff writer Lee May contributed to this article.