Only One Thing Is Perfectly Clear: Dornan Is No Nixon

One historian called it Richard Nixon’s finest hour.

No, not either of his presidential-election victories. Not his “kitchen” debate with Nikita Khrushchev, or his ultimate post-Watergate political rehabilitation.

Not even his shaking hands with Elvis in the White House.

No, the historian was talking about Nixon’s refusal to contest the outcome of the 1960 presidential election, won by John F. Kennedy amid suspicion of ballot-box fraud in Chicago and Texas. Nixon said he decided against a recount or investigation because the country would be in limbo and its image around the world would suffer if fraud were proved.

Bob Dornan is no Richard Nixon. He’s no Lyndon Johnson either. LBJ was convinced that his run for the U.S. Senate in 1941 was torpedoed by election-riggers. Johnson let it slide, vowing to fight another day. Then, when he finally won a Senate seat several years later, it was Johnson’s campaign that was accused of, uh, going the extra mile.

The only point is that this just adds more weight to the argument that Dornan isn’t presidential timber.

With that out of the way, just what is going on in the 46th Congressional District?

Dornan has been bumped from center stage by Bill Jones, who claims to be California’s secretary of state, but with a name like that, surely he is the state insurance commissioner.

Anyway, Jones wants local and federal authorities to team up to verify the citizenship status of every registered voter in Orange County. I had to look up “overkill” to make sure I wouldn’t be using the word improperly. The dictionary defines it as “an excess of something beyond what is required or suitable for a particular purpose.”

Yup. That’s the word I was looking for.

(Aside to the secretary of state: If it’ll save time, I solemnly swear that I was duly registered and am a natural-born citizen, so you don’t need to check me. I could also vouch for a number of my friends.)

Even for people like me wondering what Hermandad Mexicana Nacional is up to, this foray from Sacramento smacks of B-52s carpet-bombing grass huts. From what we know so far, the number of people-on-their-way-to-citizenship who may have voted illegally in the 46th District wouldn’t even make a Texan sneeze. LBJ would have been embarrassed to challenge an election like this. Mayor Daley wouldn’t bother. And that doesn’t even take into account the presumptive leap that the illegal votes cost Dornan the election. It’s not as though Dornan lost by 12 votes. He lost by nearly 1,000. Who knows how many people who voted illegally might have voted for Dornan?

Yet, the secretary of state--heretofore unknown to most of us--now acts as if the very foundation of Orange County electioneering is teetering. Your next question is, “And he feels that way based on what?”

Exactly.

Has there been any indication that Hermandad or anyone else orchestrated a campaign to have people vote for a specific candidate?

Has there been any indication of rigged ballot boxes, as in days of yore, where polling site commissioners would do some creative hand-counting of the votes if their candidate were behind?

Nope. What we have so far are some legitimate questions about how vigorously Hermandad got out the vote last November. I say let the Orange County district attorney go after that one, which he is.

And as for the state of California and federal immigration officials doing citizenship checks? No, thank you. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

Meanwhile, Dornan and Jones are shocked that Latinos would think this move is directed at them. Everyone knows it is, and Bill Jones might as well just say so.

Dornan wants another election, but not because he knows the last one was stolen. He wants another one because he has nothing to lose by getting one, and everything to gain, and he can’t stand the crowd that beat him. Even some of Dornan’s political allies said last year that his poor campaigning cost him the election.

LBJ and Nixon would be spinning in their graves. By the time this gets resolved, the 1998 election will be upon us anyway, and Dornan can have another whack at Sanchez.

In the meantime, this thought: Even if Dornan’s suspicions prove true about Hermandad’s election-year shenanigans, doesn’t it almost make you chuckle that such things would fold neatly into the fabric of our American political history?

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.