GOP Leaders Squeeze Rebel Dornan From Panel

House GOP leaders have excluded Rep. Robert K. Dornan from a key defense conference committee in what the Garden Grove Republican says is retaliation for his campaign against a first-term Republican who supports abortion rights.

Dornan’s exclusion is unusual because he chairs the House subcommittee on military personnel, an influential position that makes him an obvious choice for a committee that is helping to forge defense policy.

Dornan said his aid for a campaign against Sue Kelly, a first-term GOP representative from New York, is the primary reason why he was not named to the conference committee by House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

But he added that “there may be a subtext.” Other Republicans and political observers say that includes Dornan’s fiery opposition to gays serving in the military and other high-profile positions Dornan has taken, sometimes against the leadership’s wishes.

House GOP leaders did not return repeated phone calls on the matter. Rank-and-file House Republicans said they had no knowledge of the intraparty dispute or adopted a terse code of silence.

“It is the speaker’s decision,” said one.

A list of conferees who met Wednesday to begin hammering out differences between House and Senate versions of the defense authorization bill does not include Dornan’s name.

The high-level Defense Authorization Conference Committee consists of 21 senators and 36 representatives who reconcile differences between the two houses on defense policy. The committee will forge a bill for a final vote before it is sent to President Clinton’s desk.

Dornan said on the House floor last week that he had been put on the conference committee. On Wednesday, he continued to maintain that whether or not he will be added to the panel “is still slightly unresolved,” but noted that he has attended the meetings anyway.

Dornan ruffled the feathers of House leaders when he chose to aid a campaign to defeat Kelly by backing her opponent, Joe DioGuardi. Gingrich and other House Republican leaders requested that DioGuardi drop out of the Sept. 10 primary.

“Should you not withdraw your candidacy, you will be doing the party a great disservice” they said in a June 17 letter to DioGuardi signed by Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey, Majority Whip Tom DeLay and others. They added that the “House Republican Leadership is prepared to commit time and extensive resources to Sue Kelly’s reelection efforts.”

Dornan said he has withdrawn his active support for DioGuardi.

An outspoken opponent of abortion and a critic of gays, Dornan repeatedly has delivered long and frequently vitriolic speeches, despite occasional requests not to do so from House leaders. He also has threatened to “out” members of Congress who he believes to be secretly gay and has interrupted regular business to respond to critics.

“This is certainly not a normal occurrence,” said conservative political observer Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. “But it’s no surprise. Dornan has been pushing the envelope all year long with the leadership. It’s payback time now.”

If Dornan were placed on the conference committee, his chances of advancing his proposals would be greatly increased. That could delay lawmakers in returning to their districts to run for reelection.

Paul Weyrich, a strong Dornan supporter who is chairman of the conservative Free Congress Foundation, said it is unfair that Dornan not be immediately named to the committee.

“I think that Gingrich has confused himself with the last chairman of the Soviet Central Committee and thinks he can dictate who people support in an election,” Weyrich said. “I’m told he was furious that Dornan is supporting DioGuardi.”

On Tuesday, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., delivered a letter to Gingrich signed by 36 House members requesting that Dornan be named a conferee. But Bartlett still has no idea why Gingrich excluded Dornan, said Lisa Wright, Bartlett’s press aide.

“It was a curious omission, but the ‘why’ isn’t important,” she said. “What’s important is Dornan’s experience and knowledge of the military.”

Some believe Dornan’s seeking to defeat an incumbent Republican may be simply another frustration in a long list of concerns that GOP leaders have.

The others include controversial amendments Dornan has attached to key spending legislation, considered “veto bait” that could bog down on the president’s desk and ultimately return to Congress after a veto.

“The leadership is understandably concerned,” Ornstein said. “They’re looking to get out of here quickly and on a high note. They don’t want a lot of internal division.”

This year, Dornan has reintroduced a highly contentious measure seeking to dismiss military personnel who are found to be HIV-positive. Although that provision was originally passed last year because it was attached to a larger bill, Congress quickly repealed it.

Another Dornan proposal would repeal President Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays. Clinton is expected to veto both if they reach his desk.