Issues Are Personal in Dornan-Farber Debate : Elections: Character-- or lack of it--is focus of allegations. Libertarian candidate Newhouse calls for term limits.

Republican Rep. Robert K. Dornan and his Democratic opponent, Mike Farber, took some wild verbal swings at each other during and after a television debate taping Friday, with Dornan angrily calling his challenger “a twit” and Farber alleging that the incumbent lacks moral character.

Issues varying from Proposition 187, the immigration measure on the Nov. 8 ballot, to term limits for Congress, were overshadowed by the caustic exchanges between the Garden Grove congressman and his Democratic challenger regarding decades-old allegations that Dornan abused his wife, Sallie.

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Dornan and Farber, who are competing for the 46th Congressional District seat, stole the spotlight from other candidates who participated in the KOCE-TV debate: Libertarian Richard G.Newhouse, the third candidate in the 46th District race; and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and his Democratic challenger, Brett Williamson, in the 45th Congressional District race.

Farber, looking uneasy at first, took the first shot at Dornan when he held up two blank sheets of paper--the first depicting what Farber said was Dornan’s lack of accomplishments during his 16 years in Congress, and the second which Farber claimed was Dornan’s “record of character, a character that he has tried to hide from the public for the last 16 years. It’s blank also.”

The Democrat was referring to court records dated between 1960 and 1976, in which Dornan’s wife, Sallie, accused her husband of spousal abuse. Sallie Dornan has since recanted those charges, claiming they were made while she was addicted to prescription drugs.

Still, Farber has used the court records in his campaign mailers. The Dornans have filed a libel suit against Farber.

The cross-fire between the two candidates intensified. Dornan, who listed redevelopment and crime programs he has supported for his district, quickly changed the topic to defend himself against the spousal abuse charges. He said Farber was the first opponent he has had in nine elections whose hand he refused to shake.

“To attack my wife the way he has, to get into the gutter . . . it’s a disgrace,” Dornan said.

“I have never attacked Sallie Dornan. I have attacked Bob Dornan’s character and that is it,” Farber replied.

“She thinks all these attacks are against her,” Dornan argued.

Farber challenged Dornan to “step forward and take responsibility” for his actions.

Dornan coolly responded: “Mike, I thought you were about 6-foot-2 the way you’re coming on. I didn’t realize that you’re a twit. . . . It’s amazing that you would attack a woman that’s taller than you are.” (Farber’s spokesman said the candidate is 5-foot-9 and Sallie Dornan is 5-foot-6.)

The quarreling continued after the 30-minute debate ended, with Dornan taunting Farber and his aides, accusing them of having gay rights activists and a “pornographer” on their staff. The Farber campaign denied it.

“Go get elected to the state Senate or the state Assembly and I won’t get in your face again,” Dornan told Farber. The candidate walked away without responding, but one of his aides shouted back to Dornan at one point, “That’s a man; that’s a real man.”

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Rohrabacher, who was standing nearby, twice tugged at Dornan to pull him away from the verbal jousting.

Newhouse, a professor at Rancho Santiago College, stayed out of the fray during the television taping but directed most of his comments to Dornan. “The best term limits possible is to terminate Bob Dornan this time. He’s been in there 16 years,” Newhouse said.

In the other contest featured in the debate, Rohrabacher touted himself as an anti-spending congressman who has fought to remove government benefits from illegal immigrants. He also said he favors a constitutional amendment limiting congressional terms.

“Unlike the Democrats, we are going to bring this to the (House) floor for a vote,” he said.

Williamson said he favors three two-year terms for members of the House, but noted that Rohrabacher supports twice as many terms. “That’s not the term limits Californians voted for in 1992,” Williamson said.

The debate will air on Thursday.