Dornan’s Off Button Gets Pushed : House silences him--briefly--after he again savages Clinton

Unrepentant, the garrulous Rep. Robert K. Dornan was sent briefly to the penalty box this week by his own party. The Garden Grove Republican was stripped of his floor speaking privileges for 24 hours, and the scathing remarks he made about President Clinton in the House on Wednesday were removed from the official record.

On Tuesday night, Dornan--a longtime critic of Clinton’s actions during the Vietnam War--saw something that really got his goat: a Congressional Medal of Honor winner sitting next to Hillary Rodham Clinton as her guest during the State of the Union address.

In ripping into Clinton on Wednesday, Dornan claimed that the President as a young man avoided the draft three times and provided “aid and comfort to the enemy during the Vietnam War.” Strong words. And out-of-line words, too, as John J. (Jimmy) Duncan Jr., a Tennessee Republican who was presiding over the House at the time, ruled.

Of course there are many Americans who remain unhappy with how Clinton handled his draft situation many years ago. That is their right, and Dornan was clearly preaching to that choir. But Clinton’s Vietnam-era draft record was a known quantity by the time he was elected, and today, in addition to being President, he is the commander in chief of the armed forces.

A House prohibition on offensive or ridiculing language is there for a good reason. It preserves a measure of respect for high public offices, even if politicians are not always unanimous in assessing the occupants of those offices at any given time.

By the way, the Congressional Medal of Honor winner, Jack Lucas, who certainly had the credentials to raise any questions about Clinton and the military, didn’t seem to have a problem being where the current commander in chief could point him out.

The favorable public approval ratings Clinton received for his conciliatory speech demonstrate a larger point. Americans are fed up with rancor in Washington. The President seems to have heard a message from the heartland that Dornan, in his pique, has yet to fully absorb.