Dornan Lashes GOP in Dispute Over Panel Seat

Rep. Bob Dornan, responding formally to being excluded from a key defense conference committee, issued a statement Friday contending that the “Republican Party is on the brink of self-destruction.”

The Garden Grove Republican said in a statement that he has been attending the panel’s meetings even though he is not an official member, and continues “to carry the standard for. . . pro-family and pro-life groups.”

The statement was released by Dornan’s staff shortly after Dornan canceled a news conference he had scheduled on the matter.

Dornan promised that once the Defense Authorization Conference Committee concludes its deliberations, he would address the “breakdown in communication, trust and leadership” among House Republicans.

“I intend to discuss in depth my contention that my Republican Party is on the brink of self-destruction,” he added.

Dornan has been kept off the panel by Speaker Newt Gingrich in what Dornan says is retaliation for his campaign against a first-term Republican representative from New York who supports abortion rights. Gingrich’s office has declined to comment on the issue.

Others believe Gingrich did not put Dornan on the panel because of Dornan’s vitriolic opposition to gays serving in the military and other high-profile positions Dornan has taken, sometimes against the leadership’s wishes.

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.