American politician (born 1933)
Robert Kenneth Dornan
(born April 3, 1933) is an American actor, radio talk show host, combat veteran, and Republican politician from California. Dornan represented two
Southern California
districts in the
United States House of Representatives
from 1977 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1997, where he became known as a "leading firebrand" on the party's
conservative
wing. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the United States Senate
in 1982
and for President of the United States
in 1996
.
A former actor and television and radio talk show host, Dornan had a flair for the dramatic that drew supporters and detractors well beyond his congressional district. Though never a major power in Washington, he became one of the most well-known members of the House of Representatives as a participant in televised "special orders" speeches and was described as "one of the leading firebrands among American politicians".
[1]
He has become well known for publicly
outing
fellow Republican U.S. Representative
Steve Gunderson
as
gay
on the House of Representatives floor in 1994.
Early life
[
edit
]
Dornan was born in New York City, the son of Gertrude (McFadden) Dornan (1900?1967) and Harry Joseph Dornan (1892?1975).
[2]
[3]
[4]
In New York, Dornan's mother had been a
vaudeville
performer as part of an act called the McFadden Sisters and a
Ziegfeld Follies
showgirl, and had performed under the stage name Bara Wilkes; her sister was the wife of actor
Jack Haley
.
[5]
[6]
Harry Dornan owned a
haberdashery
. After moving to California, he became a real estate entrepreneur in
West Los Angeles
. He was active in
harness racing
, a pastime in which many celebrities participated during the 1940s and 1950s.
[8]
Robert Dornan took advantage of his family's entertainment industry experience and connections after he embarked on his own acting and talk show career. He used celebrity endorsements and campaign contributions to launch his political career.
Dornan attended Loyola University of Los Angeles (later renamed
Loyola Marymount University
) from 1950 to 1953. At age 19, Robert joined the
United States Air Force
. He became a fighter pilot, and during his time in the Air Force, he survived two emergency
parachute
ejections and two
"dead stick" forced landings
(including one of an
F-100
). He was on active duty until 1958, and attained the rank of captain.
[10]
He served in the
California Air National Guard
and
Air Force Reserve
until retiring in 1975.
[10]
Dornan also served as a combat journalist and photographer on several missions in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia during the
Vietnam War
and flew relief flights into
Biafra
.
Career
[
edit
]
Entertainment
[
edit
]
Dornan was involved in the entertainment industry as an actor. He starred in the film
The Starfighters
, cast as Lt. Witkowski, an Air Force pilot who was the son of a U.S. congressman.
The Starfighters
aired on
Mystery Science Theater 3000
on October 29, 1994.
[
citation needed
]
In 1962, he portrayed Air Force Lieutenant Alden in the episode "Dennis at Boot Camp" of the
CBS
sitcom
,
Dennis the Menace
, starring
Jay North
and
Gale Gordon
, with
Roy Roberts
in this segment as Captain Stone.
[11]
In 1966 he co-starred in and possibly co-wrote
To the Shores of Hell
.
Dornan had a frequent role as Captain Fowler on
ABC
's
12 O'Clock High
television series and smaller roles on ABC's
Bewitched
and
NBC
's
I Dream of Jeannie
. Dornan was an
Emmy
-award-winning television
talk show
host on
Tempo
and
The Robert K. Dornan Show
broadcast from
Los Angeles
from 1967 to 1973.
[
citation needed
]
Politics
[
edit
]
Dornan has said he took an active role in the
civil rights movement
.
[12]
He did attend the historic 1963
March on Washington
led by
Martin Luther King Jr.
; when this claim was questioned in 1994, he circulated a photo of himself in his Air Force uniform seated in the audience for King's speech.
[12]
News accounts also indicate he participated in voter registration drives for
African Americans
in
Mississippi
.
[12]
However, a 1998
Washington Post
article indicated there is no corroborating information (such as news clippings from the era) to confirm this claim.
[13]
[14]
[15]
Dornan moved into politics in 1973 as national spokesman for the
Citizens for Decency Through Law
advocacy group. He made an unsuccessful run for
mayor of Los Angeles
the same year. In 1976, Dornan was elected to the House of Representatives, representing the 27th congressional district in western
Los Angeles County
. He was re-elected twice. He was such an unswerving advocate for the development of the
B-1 bomber
, that he was soon nicknamed "B-1 Bob".
[16]
In November 1977, he was an opposition speaker at the
1977 National Women's Conference
with Lottie Beth Hobbs, Dr.
Mildred Jefferson
,
Phyllis Schlafly
and
Nellie Gray
.
[17]
After the 1980 census, California's congressional map was redrawn. Dornan's district, previously a Republican-leaning swing district, was made significantly more Democratic. Believing he had no chance of winning this new district, he opted to run for the United States Senate
in 1982
. He finished fourth in the Republican primary behind
San Diego mayor
and future
Governor
Pete Wilson
, who won in November.
[
citation needed
]
Dornan moved to
Garden Grove
, in the more Republican
Orange County
. In 1984, he was elected to Congress from the 38th district in central Orange County, defeating 10-year Democratic incumbent
Jerry M. Patterson
by a 53% to 45% margin amid
Ronald Reagan
's massive landslide that year. In 1986, he won a tough race against Democratic state Assemblyman Richard Robinson, winning by a 55% to 43% margin. He was re-elected four more times and served on the
Intelligence Committee
.
[
citation needed
]
Dornan made headlines in March 1985 for a confrontation with Representative
Thomas Downey
(a Democrat from New York) on the House floor.
[18]
Downey asked Dornan about comments he had made calling Downey "a draft-dodging wimp".
[18]
(Downey was exempt from the
Vietnam War
draft because of a perforated eardrum.
[18]
) According to Downey, Dornan, grabbing him by collar and tie, said, "It's good you're being protected by the
sergeant-at-arms
. If I saw you outside, it would be a different story" and threatened him "with some form of bodily harm".
[18]
Dornan claimed he was merely straightening Downey's tie and refused to apologize for the incident or the derogatory comment.
[18]
A Dornan aide said, "It will be a cold day in hell before he gets an apology from Bob Dornan".
[19]
Dornan's record was staunchly conservative. However, he did hold some positions that some might call liberal, including sponsoring animal protection acts, earning him the recognition of
PETA
in 1988.
[20]
[21]
In 1994, during his final successful run for Congress, it was reported that Dornan's wife, Sallie, had made multiple allegations of domestic violence against him earlier in their marriage. In 1966, Dornan had been convicted of a domestic violence offense and sentenced to jail time; however, it was unclear whether his sentence had ever been served. After the allegations were made public, Sallie Dornan retracted them, stating that she had made false claims about her husband during a period when she was struggling with prescription drug addiction. The Dornans' five children asserted that their father had not been physically abusive.
[22]
[23]
During the same campaign, Dornan had signs posted at polling places that warned voters in
Spanish
that they should be prepared to prove their citizenship in order to vote. The signs suggested that immigration officials would be present at the polls. The success of this action was believed to have kept enough Latino voters away from the polls to eke out a victory for Dornan against Mike Farber.
[23]
In 1995, Dornan received a minor reprimand from the House for stating in a floor speech that President
Bill Clinton
had "given aid and comfort to the enemy" during the Vietnam War.
[24]
Dornan was a
dark horse
candidate for
president of the United States
in 1996.
[25]
In a GOP debate in Iowa on January 13, Dornan called Clinton a "criminal" and a "pathological liar".
[26]
Dornan later dropped out of the presidential race and ran for reelection to his seat in the House; he was defeated by Democrat
Loretta Sanchez
by less than 1,000 votes.
[27]
Following the narrow defeat, Dornan alleged that Sanchez's winning margin was provided by illegal voting from non-U.S. citizens. A thirteen-month House of Representatives investigation ensued, during which Sanchez was seated provisionally, pending the inquiry.
[28]
A task force found 748 votes that had been cast illegally?624 from non-citizens in addition to 124 that had already been thrown out by California officials. This was not enough to overturn Sanchez's margin of victory and she was allowed to keep her seat.
[29]
However, in consultation with the
INS
, the House committee identified 4,762 questionable registration affidavits.
[30]
In September 1997, while his 1996 bid against Sanchez was still being contested, Dornan confronted then-Representative
Bob Menendez
on the House floor, using profanity and calling Menendez an "anti-Catholic coward". This encounter led to Menendez filing a resolution to bar Dornan from the House floor until the election was resolved, which passed by a vote of 289?65.
[31]
[32]
Controversial statements
[
edit
]
During his political career, Dornan became known for his controversial or offensive statements. Among his remarks:
- During a House debate in 1994, Dornan
outed
fellow Republican representative
Steve Gunderson
, accusing him of having a "revolving door on his
closet
."
[33]
- In a 1986 U.S. House speech, he called Soviet journalist
Vladimir Posner
a "disloyal, betraying little
Jew
who sits there on television claiming that he is somehow or other a newsman."
[34]
This was the only statement Dornan apologized for, saying, "That's the only thing in my life I ever lost sleep over."
[35]
Dornan also said that he intended "to say '
Judas
', not 'Jew'," as a rebuttal to Posner's insistence that the
Soviet Union
was free of
anti-Semitism
.
[35]
- "Every
lesbian
spear chucker in this country is hoping I get defeated" to a Los Angeles television reporter in 1992 regarding a female challenger in the primary election.
[35]
[36]
- On a January 28, 1994, appearance on
Politically Incorrect
, Dornan declared it was "The Year of the Penis" due to recent events in the news. This was a joke in regard to the 1992 media and political reference as that election being referred to as "
The Year of the Woman
", when four women won election to the United States Senate.
[37]
- "You are a slimy coward. Go register in another party" to Orange County Republican Central Committee member William Dougherty after he supported Dornan's opponent in 1996.
[38]
In 1994, a 120-page book of quotations of Dornan was compiled by Nathan Callahan and William Payton and published as
Shut Up, Fag!
The quotation that gives the book the title was actually shouted by Dornan's wife, Sallie, at an
AIDS
activist during an Orange County town forum. Dornan claimed the book was backed by director
Oliver Stone
, whom Dornan labeled "a
Bolshevik
enemy".
[39]
Dornan's comments and behavior led his political opponents to question his
mental health
. Mike Kaspar of the Orange County Democratic Party said, "The primary issue is Bob Dornan, himself. I think his character and his own
sanity
are an issue here."
[40]
At a
White House Correspondents Dinner
,
Al Franken
, who had worked once on
Politically Incorrect
with Dornan, joked "having
Al D'Amato
leading an
ethics
investigation is like getting Bob Dornan to head up a mental health task force."
[41]
Michael Moore
devoted an entire chapter of his book
Downsize This!
to his efforts to get Dornan involuntarily committed for psychiatric examination.
[42]
Later career
[
edit
]
Dornan ran against
Loretta Sanchez
again in 1998, but was defeated.
[43]
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dornan hosted
The Bob Dornan Show
, a radio talk show syndicated nationally by
Talk Radio Network
.
[44]
[45]
In 2004, Dornan challenged Congressman
Dana Rohrabacher
, a fellow Republican, in the primary. Dornan charged Rohrabacher with being soft on terrorism and being too close to Islamic extremists.
[46]
However, he lost by 84% to 16%.
[47]
During the summer of 2005, Dornan briefly expressed interest in the
48th congressional district
seat that became vacant when then U.S. Congressman
Christopher Cox
resigned to become
chairman
of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
.
[48]
He was interested in running as the nominee of the
American Independent Party
but did not, allegedly rebuffed by party officials.
[49]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1955, Dornan married Sallie Hansen.
[50]
They have five children.
[51]
[52]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Barone, Michael
; Ujifusa, Grant (1996).
The Almanac of American Politics
.
National Journal
. pp. 210?212.
ISBN
0892340576
.
- ^
Supplement to Who's Who in America
. Vol. 44. Chicago, IL:
Marquis Who's Who
. 1987. p. 231.
ISBN
9780837971001
.
- ^
"Obituary, Harry J. Dornan"
.
Los Angeles Times
. January 26, 1975. p. Part II, page 2 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"Obituary, Gertrude Consuelo McFadden Dornan"
.
Los Angeles Times
. June 7, 1967. p. Part II, page 2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Bailey, Eric; Warren, Peter M. (November 23, 1996).
"Congress Loses One of Its Leading Characters"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
Kotkin, Joel (November 27, 1977).
"Hollywood's Great Right Hope"
.
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.
- ^
Murphy, Jeanmarie (October 27, 1985).
"The Downs"
.
Los Angeles Times
. p. F22 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^
a
b
"Dornan, Robert Kenneth (1933-)"
.
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.
- ^
"
"Dennis at Boot Camp", November 25, 1962"
.
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. Retrieved
February 9,
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.
- ^
a
b
c
Martinez, Gene (October 14, 1994).
"Dornan Has Rights Answer"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Los Angeles, CA. p. A35 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Claiborne, William (9 May 16, 1998).
"
'B-1 Bob' Is on the Attack Again".
The Washington Post
.
- ^
"Bob Dornan On Civil Rights"
Archived
2018-09-28 at the
Wayback Machine
.
- ^
Tawa, Renee (September 2, 1995). "Dornan Presidential Campaign Staffers Fired for Using Racial Slurs".
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
Barone, Michael
; Ujifusa, Grant (1987).
The Almanac of American Politics 1988
.
National Journal
. p. 165.
- ^
"1977 National Women's Conference: A Question of Choices"
. November 21, 1977. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia,
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Romano, Lois (March 6, 1985).
"Duel on the Hill"
.
The Washington Post
. Washington, DC.
- ^
"Dornan Won't Apologize for Wimp Remark".
Los Angeles Times
. March 5, 1985. p. 2.
- ^
The Utne Reader
, Issues 34-36. Lens Publishing Company, 1989. p. 51.
- ^
Rockwell, Lew
(1990).
The Economics of Liberty
,
Ludwig von Mises Institute
. p. 304. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^
"
'I Take Full Blame': Sallie Dornan says a longtime drug addiction drove her to falsely accuse her husband of abuse"
.
Los Angeles Times
. June 24, 1993.
- ^
a
b
Martinez, Gebe (October 26, 1994).
"Dornan Challenges Foe's Claims of Spousal Abuse"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
"Dornan Rebuked After Diatribe Against Clinton"
.
Los Angeles Times
. January 26, 1995.
- ^
Resnick, Brian; Terris, Ben (May 29, 2013).
"Failed Long-Shot Presidential Candidates Like Michele Bachmann Tend to Disappear"
.
The Atlantic
.
- ^
Mahtesian, Charles (31 May 2012).
"What was Thad McCotter thinking?"
.
Politico
.
- ^
"Bachmann Tries to Defy History's Long Trail of Failed U.S. Representative Presidential Bids"
. June 27, 2011.
- ^
Reiss, Cory (December 20, 2006).
"Jennings to protest to Congress"
.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
. Archived from
the original
on September 27, 2007.
- ^
Koszczuk, Jackie (February 7, 1998).
"Proof Of Illegal Voters Falls Short, Keeping Sanchez In House"
.
Congressional Quarterly
– via
CNN
.
- ^
Warren, Peter (November 8, 1997).
"Signature Lists Sought in Sanchez Probe"
.
Los Angeles Times
: A1.
- ^
Franken, Bob (1997-09-18).
"AllPolitics - House Ponders Barring Bob Dornan From The Floor - Sep. 18, 1997"
.
CNN
. Retrieved
2023-06-12
.
- ^
Zaret, Elliot (1997-09-19).
"Dornan banned from House floor"
.
SFGATE
. Retrieved
2023-06-12
.
- ^
ElBoghdady, Dina (March 24, 1994). "Dornan Accuses Fellow Republican of Being Gay". States News Service.
- ^
"Lawmaker Apologizes for 'Inelegant' Words".
The New York Times
.
United Press International
. March 1, 1986. p. 1.11.
- ^
a
b
c
Clines, Francis X. (June 27, 1995).
"Appearing Nightly: Robert Dornan, Master of the Put-Down"
.
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.
- ^
Romano, Lois (June 4, 1992). "The Reliable Source".
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. p. c.03.
- ^
Senior, Jennifer (March 6, 1994). "When Politicians Get Silly".
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. p. A.1.
- ^
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, December 2, 1996.
148
(25) p. 28(1).
- ^
Fiore, Faye (July 15, 1994).
"
'Shut Up' Is Not in Dornan's Vocabulary".
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. p. 3.
- ^
Parsons, Dana (May 4, 1994). "Democrats Unveil Weapon Against Dornan ? Dornan".
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. p. 1.
- ^
Schapiro, Mark (n.d.).
"The Salon Interview: Al Franken"
. Archived from
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on September 26, 2007.
,
Salon.com
.
- ^
Moore, Michael (1997).
Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American
. Harper.
- ^
"Sanchez trumps Dornan again in California House race"
. CNN. November 3, 1998.
- ^
"One Dornan Stays Out, One Gets In"
.
Los Angeles Times
. December 2, 1999. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^
"Savage gets the boot after on-air anti-gay outburst"
.
Los Angeles Times
. July 8, 2003. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
- ^
Brandon, Karen (March 2, 2004).
"
'B-1 Bob' Dornan tries for a comeback"
.
Chicago Tribune
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Weikel, Dan (March 3, 2004).
"Rohrabacher Takes Big Lead Over Dornan"
.
Los Angeles Times
. Los Angeles, CA. p. A25 – via
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.
- ^
"Still another Special Election"
.
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. California State University Northridge. December 2005
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Israel, Josh (July 7, 2008).
"Chuck Baldwin interviewed by Josh Israel"
.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
Grove, Lloyd (April 4, 1985).
"Bob Dornan, Combat Ready"
.
The Washington Post
.
- ^
Lesher, Dave (June 24, 1993).
"
'I Take Full Blame': Sallie Dornan says a longtime drug addiction drove her to falsely accuse her husband of abuse"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
Each time, Sallie Dornan and the couple's five children have braced for the day when Dornan's role as a controversial public figure would lead to exposure of the darkest period of their lives.
- ^
Gould, Jack (October 31, 2002).
"The Bob Dornan Hall of Fame"
.
OC Weekly
. Fountain Valley, CA.
Bob Dornan's confirmed offspring (Robin, Kate, Theresa, Mark and Bob Jr.)
External links
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