Dornan Admirers Say Loss Leaves ‘a Void’

One of the most vocal advocates for social conservatism is gone, and with him, one of the most strident allies that abortion foes and families of Vietnam-era casualties ever had.

As news that the final ballot count Friday showed Rep. Robert K. Dornan losing his central Orange County seat to Democrat Loretta Sanchez, his friends and political allies in Washington remembered him mostly as a man of his word.

But his insistence on voicing that word may have been his undoing, observers say.

The Garden Grove conservative never wavered, his political partners said, when it came to opposing such social issues as abortion and gay rights, and to expanding the legal rights of survivors of the 2,000 Vietnam War veterans who are unaccounted for and now presumed dead.

Nor were his political views ever in doubt to those who heard him forcefully project his opinions from the hearing room where he chaired the Military Personnel Subcommittee, or from the House floor where his speeches were sometimes filled with invective for his political enemies--bluster that some of his supporters conceded may have kept him from accomplishing his goals.

“Bob Dornan, for those of us who know him and understand him . . . fills a unique role on some of the most controversial issues. He stands tall and strong among the sequoias,” said the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition. Of Dornan’s impending absence from Congress, he added: “It’s a void.”

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But while Dornan effectively called attention to his causes, his personality also detracted from his legislative success, even to the point of angering or embarrassing some of his Republican colleagues, observers said.

“Relief [over Dornan’s election loss] seems to be concentrated on the Republican side,” said Thomas E. Mann, director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution.

“Dornan was not a consensus builder. He was not a builder of majority coalitions. He was a man out of talk radio and made for talk radio. It’s a style of talking more than listening, and challenging ones’ colleagues. That does not make for an effective legislative craftsman,” Mann said.

The view is shared by Sara Bernasconi, of Albuquerque, N.M., who heads the POW/MIA committee of the Vietnam Veterans of America and who is an admirer of Dornan’s.

Bernasconi’s husband was an Air Force weapons systems officer when he was shot down over Vietnam in 1968. She and other POW/MIA families have worked for 12 years on legislation that would provide the veterans’ families with legal representation and force the Defense Department to disclose classified documents related to the wartime disappearances of service personnel.

“I’m real disappointed that Dornan has not been reelected,” Bernasconi said, adding that no other member of Congress rallied more for their cause than Dornan.

“I think he may have had some personality conflicts with a lot of people in Congress and therefore may have had difficulty when the time came to getting a consensus to get people together,” she added.

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One of Dornan’s many conflicts was with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who carried the Defense Department’s request that Dornan’s bill be scaled down because it contained burdensome regulations. The two lawmakers angrily clashed over the bill.

The legislation became law earlier this year, but Congress repealed it several months later. In the closing days of the last session, Dornan won unanimous House approval of a revised version, but it stalled in the Senate.

Carol Hrdlicka, a longtime friend of Dornan’s whose husband was shot down over Laos in 1965, said she believes the Orange County congressman was targeted for defeat by Republicans and others who were opposed to Dornan’s demands for a full accounting by the federal government on the POW/MIA issue.

“Nobody else has the guts to stand up and fight for it and Congressman Dornan did. He’s one of the few who do have the guts to stand up for what’s right,” said Hrdlicka, whose husband’s name appears on the POW/MIA bracelet still worn by Dornan.

“I think that’s part of the reason he’s not returning [to Congress],” Hrdlicka added. “The Republicans didn’t like this; the Defense Department didn’t like this.”

Some of Dornan’s fans are among anti-abortion activists, who applauded his success with the law to ban abortions at overseas military hospitals even though they were paid for by military personnel and their dependents.

“Bob Dornan, of course, is a friend. On a personal level, we will miss him very much,” said Penny Nance, legislative director for the conservative Concerned Women For America. She added that while this conservative warrior will be gone from the political arena, others will remain to carry on their political agenda.

“Looking at the overall situation in the House and Senate, conservatives were able to maintain control of the House and even add some seats in the Senate, so I think we’re in good shape overall,” Nance said.

What will be most missed about Dornan, she added, is the extreme conservative balance to Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who identifies himself as a socialist with a generally liberal voting record.

“People laugh about this in Washington, but in the Senate, for every Ted Kennedy there has to be a Jesse Helms, and in the House, for every Bernie Sanders there needs to be a Bob Dornan,” Nance said. “There will be a hole.”

An extremist to some, a savior to others, few disagree that Dornan will be remembered on Capitol Hill for his fighting spirit.

Among the mementos to be packed up when he leaves his Longworth House Office Building suite in early December is a framed quotation by Theodore Roosevelt that greets visitors:

“The credit belongs to the man. . . . If he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls . . . who know neither victory nor defeat.”