COMBAT IN PANAMA : County Leaders Rush to Back the Invasion of Panama : Politicians: No locally elected officials have challenged Bush’s action, though they differ on how long troops should stay.

Orange County Congressman C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) didn’t wait to be asked by the media what he thought of the Panamanian invasion: He called them.

The same was true for other elected officials who either transmitted their reactions over facsimile machines or had media liaisons pitch their bosses’ reactions to newspapers, radio and TV, as the county’s political figures scrambled onto the patriotic bandwagon.

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), known among his Sacramento legislative colleagues as “Rambo,” bypassed the media and went right to the source: President Bush.

“I sent him a telegram,” Ferguson said proudly. “I let him know I supported his action.”

Most elected officials in Orange County are Republican, and none has publicly challenged Bush’s action. Some, like Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates, called on U.S. citizens to understand the difficulties that American soldiers face as they try to find and arrest former Panamanian strongman Gen. Manuel A. Noriega.

“Citizens have to remember that when somebody here in the United States sells dope in our neighborhoods, or to our kids, you don’t know where they are or where they live,” Gates said. “It’s a problem for law enforcement. It takes time, and I’m confident the U.S. will find (Noriega). But the American people should not look at that as an easy task.”

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez strongly endorsed the President’s actions but said he hopes that U.S. troops don’t become involved in a long-term occupation of Panama.

Many Orange County officials said the only thing standing in the way of a total military success is the failure to capture Noriega.

“I’m just sorry we didn’t get him yet,” said Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress). “I think as long as Noriega is on the loose, he can rally guerrilla warfare.”

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder: “There was no other course of action we could have taken to protect the Americans in Panama, the Panama Canal and our interests there from that bully Noriega. He pushed us into action. . . . If Noriega is captured the President will be a hero.”

Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman Don R. Roth said he regrets that the military action began just before Christmas because he remembers how important the holidays were during the 20 years he served in the Navy. “It’s tough but it has to be done. . . . When you are called to do it you do it.”

Sheriff Gates said the U.S. troops are “heroes who should be treated like heroes when they arrive home.”

On the subject of Noriega’s U.S. indictment for his alleged involvement in international drug trading, Gates said, “I want to see a crooked Noriega in jail where he belongs.”

Ferguson, a former Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, is very public about having fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“All the do-gooders say, ‘Oh we assassinated somebody and we shouldn’t have. But public opinion in America will no longer allow this country to act on behalf of its own self-interests,” Ferguson said. “The president had to extend diplomacy and that meant, in this case, force.”

While there was support for Bush, elected officials differed on how long U.S. troops should occupy the Panamanian capital. Vasquez said that “our presence should be eliminated as quickly as possible after the new government is operating.”

Not everyone had Panama on their minds.

Kevin Parriott, an administrative assistant for Assemblyman John R. Lewis, (R-Orange), said “no one” brought the subject up during an open house at Lewis’ office that attracted several hundred constituents Wednesday night.

Times staff writer Rose Ellen O’Connor contributed to this report.