Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : MISCELLANY/ NEWSMAKERS AND MILESTONES

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and his Democratic opponent, Assemblyman Richard Robinson, had engaged in a mild congressional fight until this week when they turned two debates into a donnybrook.

On Thursday night the two tough and feisty political opponents blasted each other in a debate at Rancho Santiago College. Dornan claimed that he had earned the title of “Mr. Cities” by virtue of his strong service to the communities in his congressional district and called Robinson the “invisible man” who was inaccessible to constituents.

Robinson countered with accusations that Dornan spends too much time traveling around the world to take care of the district’s problems.

But that debate escalated the next day when the two taped another session for KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach. Dornan accused Robinson of accepting prostitutes and other favors from W. Patrick Moriarty, the controversial Anaheim businessman now serving a prison sentence for political corruption.

Robinson called the accusation a “damnable lie” and said Dornan was trying to evade the real issues in the campaign.

Dornan referred to stories in the Los Angeles Times about Moriarty and said reporters who wrote the articles will “tell you that Mr. Robinson is guilty of influence peddling, bribery, extortion and dealing with teen-age prostitutes in Sacramento.”

The Times had reported in 1985 that former aides to Moriarty had identified Robinson as one of several political figures who were provided with prostitutes by Moriarty.

“However, The Times has never published a story in which Robinson has been declared guilty of, or even accused of, ‘influence peddling,’ ‘bribery,’ ‘extortion’ or ‘trafficking for extortion,’ ” said Noel Greenwood, deputy managing editor of The Times.