Dornan Not MIA at Convention

Why would The Times describe me as missing in action from the Republican National Convention (Aug. 14)? It would not have taken a Sherlock Holmes to find out that on Monday (Aug. 12), I was with my older brother, Don, who had just undergone heart surgery a few days before. After all, I did ask on the House floor for prayers for Don from everyone listening on C-SPAN.

Thank God the prayers worked. Don is as good as new.

When I arrived in San Diego Aug. 13 to serve as the key speaker at a prayer breakfast for 200 pastors from around the nation, it began for me three days of nonstop celebratory radio and television interviews. The Times was premature in writing that I was conspicuously absent from Radio Row in the convention center. I did every major program from New York’s Bob Grant Show to Dallas’ David Gold to Virginia’s Ollie North and G. Gordon Liddy shows to Los Angeles’ own Michael Reagan Show.

On the final day, from 8:30 a.m. to the opening gavel of that evening’s acceptance speeches, I moved again from one show to the next without even a lunch break, exalting the Dole/Kemp team. And I guess your reporter missed me on the platform Thursday night standing beside our hero Bob Dole and his superstar wife during their moment of triumph.

REP. ROBERT K. DORNAN

R-Garden Grove