Dornan Backs Bush on Gulf, Himself for Senate or Cabinet

Garden Grove congressmen Robert K. Dornan had strong words of support for President Bush’s decision Thursday to send 100,000 more troops to the Persian Gulf and called on the President to step up the pressure on Saddam Hussein until he backs out of Kuwait.

“I not only want 100,000 there, I want 200,000,” said Dornan, a Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee. “The more people we have there, the less chance of anyone on either side getting hurt. . . . I don’t want to see anybody chewed up there.”

Dornan said the international blockade of Iraq should be tightened in the next few months, so that ships and planes that have recently been in that country are not just stopped and searched for cargo but actually seized and used to offset the economic damage the crisis is causing worldwide.

“Sooner or later he’ll get the message,” Dornan said. “I want to wait. If Americans can’t be patient, then I don’t think we’re a mature country.”

Dornan made his comments Thursday following not only Bush’s decision, but also the announcement by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) that he will not seek reelection in 1992.

Dornan’s name has figured into speculation about a Senate seat since Sen. Pete Wilson’s victory this week in his race for governor. With both of California’s Senate seats suddenly thrown wide open for 1992, Dornan said he is leaning toward running for one of them, but still needs some time to decide.

“It would be premature” to declare his candidacy now, said Dornan, just hours after Cranston’s announcement. “But looking at this objectively and subjectively, I’m moving in that direction.”

“What would keep me from running?” he asked rhetorically, and then proceeded to tick off--and promptly dismiss--a dozen possible reasons and contenders who might stand in his way.

“Promises to Orange County? I’ve kept them, I’ve been here six years,” said the fiery, red-haired ex-bomber pilot. “I’m looking at this with deadly seriousness as anyone in my position should.”

Dornan said there is “not a prayer” that Governor-elect Wilson will appoint him to the Senate seat Wilson will vacate. He predicted instead that Wilson will appoint a “caretaker” senator who will neither rob the Republican Party of an incumbent legislator--with the possible exception of state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) who lost her bid for lieutenant governor Tuesday--nor precipitate a party primary fight.

“He’ll go outside and appoint someone distinguished, or he’ll do something real interesting,” Dornan said. Among the names he mentioned: former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and state attorney general candidate Dan Lungren--if he winds up losing his nip-and-tuck battle with Democrat Arlo Smith when absentee ballots are counted.

Noting that failed 1986 Republican Senate candidate Ed Zschau had already declared he would run in 1992, Dornan said: “He’s been preparing for this. I need a couple of months to put my life together, form an exploratory committee.”

Still, while he saw no serious obstacles to a Dornan-for-Senate campaign, the 12-year legislator said an offer to serve in a second Bush Administration would probably change his mind.

“To serve on a presidential Cabinet, to be one of a kind, honestly is more important than being one of 100 senators,” he said.