Right Funny North Roast Raises $300,000 : Politics: Dornan, Rohrabacher and Cox join conservatives lampooning--and saluting--the former presidential adviser.

Oliver L. North stood at the microphone and cast a wry look at the politicians who had just hung him out to dry. Except this time, the setting was a ballroom, not the halls of Congress.

And it was all in fun. Sort of.

Looking straight at Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), one of a half-dozen conservative political figures who “roasted” North on Wednesday night at a downtown hotel, North remarked: “You can always tell (Dornan’s) car. It’s the one with the tail gunner.”

And of Rep. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), another roaster, North said: “Since your last trip to Eastern Europe, I’ve heard it said that . . . you were getting soft on communism.”

However, the former Marine Corps lieutenant colonel said another Orange County congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita), had eased North’s concerns about Cox meeting with Communists: “Dana assured me that you were simply having lunch with the Democratic delegation from California.”

Although much of evening’s tone was lighthearted, the purpose of the event, which drew about 570 conservatives from throughout the country, was anything but. North and his roasters raised about $300,000 for the Washington-based Media Research Center, which publishes the conservative media critique, Media Alert.

L. Brent Bozell III, chairman of the organization, allowed later that he was only partly joking when he said at the evening’s outset: “Liberals have made careers out of vile, repugnant, below-the-belt character assassination . . . to further your own petty agendas. . . . Tonight we’re going to prove that we can do it better.”

If the roasters failed, it was not for lack of trying.

Cox referred to North’s role in secretly channeling profits from Iranian arms sales to aid the anti-government rebels in Nicaragua, using Swiss bank accounts.

Cox joked, “Normally I don’t accept honoraria, but the truth is it’s never before been offered in Swiss francs.”

Later he suggested making North postmaster general: “Instead of raising postal rates, he’d get the Iranians to pay for it.”

North was convicted of three federal charges in the Iran-Contra scandal, including destruction of government documents. He was spared jail time and placed on probation for two years.

Aside from North, the evening’s targets included the bogymen of U.S. conservative politics, among them Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica); his estranged wife, Jane Fonda, and the two members of Congress who have acknowledged being gay, Reps. Barney Frank and Gerry Studds, both Democrats of Massachusetts.

Dornan told the crowd that he had a telegram for North from “Gerry Studds, congressman from Massachusetts.”

Dornan paused, then said with a lisp, “Hi, sailor.” The remark drew loud applause, and a few gasps.

Dornan also read a phony telegram he said was from Fonda, who recently separated from Hayden. “Ollie,” Dornan read, “you were right all along, Tom Hayden is flat-out ugly. An ugly, draft-dodging wimp. Jane.

“P.S. I love a guy in uniform.”

Some of those who attended paid $250 for a place at a table, or up to $10,000 for an entire table, complete with invitations for a special audience with North.

“This really is not intended to be an attack on the media or an attack on the left,” Bozell said later. “It’s a salute to Ollie.

“But the underlying theme is that conservatives are sick and tired of Ollie North being dragged through the mud.”