<i> A behind-the-scenes look at Orange County’s political life</i> : The House Was Rockin’, Bono Says, After Latest Outburst by Dornan

Anyone who thinks Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) might have been embarrassed last week after getting kicked off the House floor for 24 hours for verbally assaulting President Clinton doesn’t know the feisty congressman.

In fact, Dornan reveled in the attention his antics drew, conducting nine radio talk show interviews after leaving the House chamber and appearing on the major networks on the same day the O.J. Simpson defense team presented its opening statements to the jury.

But forget the television network sound bites or the replay on C-Span.

The best explanation of events came later that evening from freshman Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs) during the Washington Press Club Foundation’s dinner for members of Congress, which drew Speaker Newt Gingrich, Tipper Gore and other political and media celebrities.

In an extemporaneous, half-hour, gee-whiz discourse of his initial impressions of Congress, Bono deadpanned about the events of the day.

Dornan, he told the crowd, “doesn’t care when you talk to him, what you say, or why you’re saying it, or even if you’re there.”

At first, Bono said, he thought he could learn from Dornan and others some of the lingo used in floor debate, until he heard Dornan attack Clinton’s lack of military service during the Vietnam War, followed by his refusal to apologize for his comments. At that moment, Bono thought: “ ‘Oh my gosh. . . . Everybody’s going to be down here, there’s going to be a fight.’ So I sat close to J.C. Watts,” the former Oklahoma quarterback and now Republican congressman.

“Why did you do that?” Bono said he asked Dornan after being expelled. “And he said: ‘I’ll be on C-Span every hour. Who cares?’ ”

One person who didn’t seem to appreciate Dornan’s outburst was presidential adviser George Stephanopolous. “Quite a day, today,” he said mockingly as he walked past the congressman’s table.

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That hissing sound: While Republicans were eager to find a lot of hot air in President Clinton’s State of the Union Address last week, at least one local Republican congressman was elated with the President’s promise to deflate the federal helium program.

Established seven decades ago to field blimps in wartime, the federal program has continued to produce the gas and then require the federal government to buy it back at inflated prices, according to Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who has championed its dissolution. With the program in debt and the stockpile large enough to last more than 100 years, Cox has frequently cited the program as an example of government waste.

Cox criticized Clinton’s speech for being short on specifics. But he noted that the two spending cuts mentioned by Clinton were the National Helium Reserve and the Interstate Commerce Commission, another one of Cox’s favorite targets.

“I have sponsored the legislation that terminates both,” Cox said. “I will have two legislative successes as the result of that speech.”

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How about Gus? Spending cuts may be good news for Cox, but earmarking the Interstate Commerce Commission for elimination does not sound good for Gus Owen of Dana Point, a South County developer and the lone Republican on the four-member commission.

Owen came aboard the commission only last October, and it now looks like his time there may be short-lived. Actually, that’s just how he wanted it, said Owen’s chief of staff, Mark Hoglund, who moved to Washington from Newport Beach to work for Owen.

“When Gus took this job, he knew exactly what he was getting into,” said Hoglund, adding that Owen and Cox discuss the issue regularly. “Gus views this as an opportunity to actively participate in government downsizing and deregulation.”

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Turn out the lights: Staffers with the state Senate special committee that is investigating the Orange County bankruptcy were befuddled last week when Irvine denied their request to use the city’s auditorium for a February meeting on the crisis.

City officials told the Senate staff that they couldn’t accommodate the meeting, planned for a Friday because that’s the only day the lawmakers can get away from Sacramento. Irvine shuts down its city offices on Fridays to save money, city officials said. Rebuffed, the Senate was forced to move the meeting to Newport Beach.

“We were pretty irritated that they weren’t seeing the big picture in all this--that the state could eventually be able a big help to them,” one Senate staffer said. “Instead, they want to save a few dollars on electricity and a janitor to open the doors. We were amazed they were so shortsighted on it.”

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Gramm in town: U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), who hopes to be the next President, arrives in Orange County this week for two local events--a speech to the Lincoln Club Saturday night and a breakfast for local Republicans at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel the following Sunday morning. Insiders say a lot of well-connected Orange Countians, including developers George Argyros and Buck Johns, and Lincoln Club President Doy Henley, are already backing Gramm for the Republican presidential nomination. Gramm will be back again to kick off his county campaign at a local fund-raiser on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

UPCOMING EVENTS

* Thursday: Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez will be guest speaker at the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce’s Breakfast for Business from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Ramada Grand Avenue Hotel, 2726 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Tickets: (714) 541-5353, Ext. 104.

* Friday: Accountant John M. W. Moorlach, the man who predicted Orange County’s financial crisis, will be the guest speaker at the South Orange County Chamber of Commerce meeting from noon to 2 p.m. at the United Way office, 23421 South Pointe Drive, Laguna Hills. Information: (714) 459-6000.

Compiled by Times staff writer Len Hall, with contributions from staff writers Gebe Martinez, Eric Bailey and Greg Hernandez.

Politics ’95 appears every Sunday.