[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 7 (Thursday, February 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H378-H381]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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TRIBUTE TO ROBERT DORNAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gibbons). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is
recognized for 30 minutes.
Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor and a pleasure to come on
the House floor tonight to speak of my good friend Bob Dornan, who has
been in the press recently dealing with the decision by Congress to
allow the election to go forward in the Dornan-Sanchez race.
My purpose tonight in coming forward is while Mr. Dornan has been in
the press recently and there has been some controversy about this
particular election, I sort of share his views, and I believe in many
ways that he should still be here in Congress. My feeling is that
eagles do not flock together, we have to find them one at a time. And
Bob Dornan is really one of those outstanding Americans that should
still be here. He represented the best of this House, and so I wanted
to take a few moments tonight to talk a little bit about Bob Dornan.
The hour is late, and many of my colleagues are on their way back
home to their districts, and I will be going back tomorrow, but I
thought it appropriate to come to the House floor and speak about this
great individual, this good friend, and what I think is an American
eagle, one of a kind.
I think many of my colleagues know his personal history. He
volunteered for pilot training at age 19. Was still in college and he
served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force from 1952 to 1958. He served
in the Air Force Reserves from 1962 to 1975 and served in the Air
National Guard from 1958 to 1961. So he is a true patriot, a person
that believes serving our country is important, and he is proud of his
record and he makes no bones about the fact that he has great regard
and respect for the military and he thinks Americans should serve their
country.
He worked as a civilian combat photographer. Five of his eight trips
to wartime Vietnam were served in this capacity. One of the things
about this individual I like the most is he is willing to speak his
mind forthrightly.
Many of us saw that great movie Jerry McGuire, in which Jerry McGuire
is represented as a sports agent for Rod Tidwell in the movie, who was
a football star. And Jerry McGuire writes this book which gets him
fired, which essentially says I am going to tell the truth about what
people really believe and not what they say. And this, of course,
caused quite a stir in his sports agency and he was fired. But he went
on to represent with great compassion Rod Tidwell, and eventually he
was vindicated in the movie when Rod Tidwell received an $11.3 million
contract when most people thought that this professional football
player would not succeed. But Jerry McGuire had the faith and courage
and, sometimes lack of confidence, but in the end persevered because he
was willing to put his heart and mind in the same place; that his
spirit and what he believed in his heart was what came out when he
spoke: sincerity and honesty.
Bob Dornan is such a man, and he is to be commended for being willing
to say some things that people will not say at times. He represented
leadership on the House floor that many of us commend him for. One of
the areas in which he was particularly articulate and also a strong
advocate was the pro-life position. He was the original sponsor of the
Right to Life Act, which would effectively declare abortion
unconstitutional. He led the fight to end Federal funding for fetal
tissue research at military hospitals and government organizations. He
was one of the strongest pro-life advocates in Congress. He made no
bones about that, and many of us, like myself, agree with him and look
to him for leadership in that area.
He was also a humanitarian advocate, the former chairman of two
important House subcommittees, the National Security Subcommittee on
Military Personnel and Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and
Tactical Intelligence. He gathered and learned information for his
responsibilities firsthand by traveling around this globe and visiting
areas of engagement like Central America and Somalia.
He was loadmaster on twelve humanitarian missions to Africa. Now, a
lot of us might go on these trips to England, we might go to France, or
we might go to China and stay at the best hotels, but not Bob Dornan.
When he went on a trip, he was involved at a grass roots level and as a
loadmaster, not on one, not on five, not on eight, but on twelve
humanitarian missions to Africa.
He visited a refugee camp in Honduras as a longtime member of the
Human Rights Caucus consistently. These were part of his activities. He
opposed excessive cutbacks in defense spending, especially in
California in his Congressional District. He added an amendment to the
1994 crime bill that imposed the death penalty for espionage that leads
to the death of U.S. agents.
The reason I talk about this is because I have been on a trip with
Bob Dornan, when we went for the 50th anniversary of D-Day. This was an
extraordinary time. It was bipartisan. We had 18 Senators and 25
Members of Congress. The delegation was led by Sonny Montgomery. And
what was so extraordinary about this trip was to see some of these old
veterans come back and to see the emotion and feeling in the people of
France; how glad they were to see Americans return 50 years later, and
to have the whole sense of this great movement in history because of D-
Day and other successes against the Nazi government.
Most of us went through the standard procedure for the 50th
anniversary and went and attended most of the functions, and we would
come back at 11 o'clock at night and be very tired. One night when we
came back, Bob Dornan wanted to go out again, and so the Army was kind
enough to provide him a driver and a jeep and he went out because he
wanted to go to some of the graves. He wanted to walk and see some of
those young soldiers that died. He wanted to see their grave sites.
And he did not get back until about 5 or 6 o'clock the next morning.
When we all assembled on the bus the next morning, Bob Dornan came on
time and talked about the terrific experience he had, highly
emotionalized experience that went to the core of the reason we were
there, to show respect and honor for these men who gave their life for
their country and for this momentous occasion that turned the entire
history of the Western Civilization.
He has always been a supporter of higher military pay and benefits,
and
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endorsed the investigation of the POW-MIAs not accounted for in
Vietnam. He initiated the POW-MIA bracelet. Remember, all the bracelets
all of us started wearing? Bob Dornan is the one that initiated this
bracelet, worn by many veterans. He led the charge to oppose the
normalization of relations with Vietnam until full account of the POW-
MIAs were provided, and he helped design a program to help to seek
military personnel become teachers.
I mean I have more here that I want to go on, and we are going to do
a special order later on for Bob Dornan, but I was just compelled to
come to the floor and I am joined here with another distinguished
Member of Congress from California, who is also compelled out of sheer
friendship, out of sheer respect, out of sheer love for our colleague,
Bob Dornan. The gentleman from San Diego (Mr. Duncan Hunter) perhaps
knows Bob Dornan better than anyone else on the House floor, so I will
yield part of my time to the gentleman.
Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and Bob
Dornan is a guy who deserves more than 15 or 20 minutes of discussion.
He is a guy who deserves days of discussion, because he brought to this
House of Representatives unique qualities that we had not seen before
he got here and we are not going to see again for years.
I am a Member of the Committee on National Security, and I have to
tell my colleagues a story about myself and Bob Dornan. When I came
here as a freshman and I was competing with a lot of other people to
get on the Committee on Armed Services, we had one seat we thought was
from California, from a senior Member retiring. Everybody who wanted
that seat, including Bob, got up to make their presentation and tell
why they should get that very coveted committee seat.
When Bob got up, he started to talk in his own favor. And then he
stopped and he said, you know, actually, we have this young guy down
from San Diego who was in the military, who loves the military and
loves national security issues, and I think we should give this thing
to Duncan Hunter. And he did that when I was a freshman. I had never
seen such an act of generosity, such an act of goodness coming from a
senior member, and I have never seen it since.
And that was Bob Dornan, a guy who had just an absolutely great
heart. But beyond that, and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns)
knows this well, Bob Dornan probably had the best background in terms
of all the military aircraft and all the military equipment that we
look at and analyze in the Committee on National Security because he
flew everything from the B-2 bomber to the newest Navy trainer. Bob
Dornan was in the cockpit. And when we had authorization bills coming
up, deciding how we would spend billions of dollars, it was Bob Dornan
who had the hands-on experience with those pieces of equipment, who was
able to give us little insights into whether or not these were really
good buys.
Mr. STEARNS. If the gentleman will yield for a second, I wanted to
read some of the aircraft he has piloted. A lot of us go out on these
field trips and we look at these aircraft, but Bob Dornan is a little
different than most of us. He has actually piloted some of these. Of
course, he piloted, as the gentleman mentioned, the B-1 bomber, plus
the SR-71 Blackbird, the B-52, the U-2, the FB-111, the F-15, F-16, the
F-18, the AV-8 Harrier, A-10, F-111F, the F-5 Tiger and 17 other high
performance fighters.
I mean this is a Congressman that got involved. He was not a back-
bencher. He was not somebody that stood by and said let us talk about
the appropriations for some of these aircraft. I want to find out if
they operate. I want to see how well they operate, and I want to talk
to the pilots and the people that operate, the repairmen, the enlisted
people, noncommissioned officers. It is just an extraordinary thing to
realize that this Member of Congress went out and did those things.
And I yield again to the gentleman.
Mr. HUNTER. And I say to my friend, he cared not only about what kind
of equipment our military people used, but he also really cared about
those people.
When we lost the Rangers in Somalia a couple of years ago, there was
one member of the Committee on National Security who went out and got
into an aircraft and flew about 20 hours to get over to Somalia and
looked at all the facts, all the things that had happened, got
debriefed on that tragedy, and then flew all the way back here and
contacted every single member of the families of those Rangers who had
been killed in Somalia. That was Bob Dornan.
And I felt so proud when I heard that Bob had done that, because that
reflected so well on us as a Committee on National Security, the old
Committee on Armed Services, because it is filled with people who
really care about people in uniform and Bob had kept that tradition and
kept that legacy going on.
So while the rest of us were going on trips to our district and trips
overseas and were doing the work that we do here when we are in a break
and have a chance to spend time with our families and maybe go out and
catch up with a little relaxation time, Bob Dornan was flying in an
aircraft for 20 hours straight so that he could get over to Somalia and
let those people know that wear our uniform and let their families know
that we cared about them.
When we stand here, we can think of all these great Bob Dornan
stories. I remember one of the great stories of the Contra wars, when
Ronald Reagan brought freedom to Guatemala, and Honduras, and Salvador,
and Nicaragua, Congressman Jack Buechner was getting arrested in
Nicaragua by the Sandinistas. I remember, from what I heard, Bob Dornan
went up and said, listen, if you arrest this Member of Congress, you
have to arrest me, too.
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And that is how he was.
I remember there was a fight one time, a little match-up between two
of our Members one time, just off the House floor. Both of them were
about twice as big as Bob. But it was Bob who got in between and broke
them up. Of course, the press hated that role for Bob Dornan because he
was a peacemaker. He was not B-2 Bob; he was a peacemaker.
But when you flew into a foreign country and you flew into a place
where a military conflict was taking place, Bob Dornan had a memory, an
analytic capability with respect to facts that nobody on this floor has
had before or since. He can give you population, he can give you all
the various armed services that that country possessed, all the
weaponry they possessed. And, similarly, he could totally analyze the
adversary of that particular country so he could give you, basically,
the match-up on both sides. What a great asset for this House.
Mr. STEARNS. Further reclaiming my time, let me take back my time and
return to my colleague.
The gentleman went right into one of the things that I wanted to
mention, which was his favorite line of scripture. Because he believes
this is what our military and police officers today do for us on a
daily basis and embodies the ideal of patriotism that he believes is so
very important. This line of scripture sort of ties into what my
colleague mentioned when he tried to separate the Members of Congress
when they got into a little scuffle here. The line is, ``Greater love
than this no man has than he lay down his life for his friends.''
When I think about Bob Dornan's willingness to sacrifice--and, as my
colleagues know, his full name is Robert Kenneth Patrick Dornan.
Almost, when I saw the movie Brave Heart, I could not help but think of
Bob Dornan because of his spiritedness and his mission and willingness
to go to any lengths to help his fellow man, not just on the basis of
humanitarian purposes but on honor and duty and country.
Mr. HUNTER. If the gentleman would yield further, that reminds me
there was in the last year or so a lot of talk about ethnic conflict
and who Bob Dornan likes and who he does not like.
I was just reminded when I was in Salvador with him, that little
country, we were in Salvador during the time when Jose Napoleon Duarte,
that great leader, democratic leader, in Salvador was trying to move
that country from its past of military dictatorships to democracy. What
a great scene that was, the one when they finally had the election.
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There was a lot of activity on the part of the communist guerillas,
who were supplied by the then Soviet Union, and they were trying to
disrupt the election. A lady stood in line, and she had blood dripping
from her arm. She had a bullet wound in the arm; and somebody said,
``Do you want to go to the infirmary?'' She said, ``No, I never had a
chance to vote and I am going to vote.'' I am reminded of that.
I am reminded of Jose Duarte, one of Bob Dornan's real heroes. Bob
had a number of us over to Jose's house, the leader of El Salvador, at
a time when he was starting to make that democracy work and he had all
these great hopes for the people of El Salvador. If my colleagues could
have seen and all the Americans could have seen and the Hispanic-
Americans could have seen Bob Dornan sitting there with that great
leader, Jose Duarte, and encouraging him to continue his fight for
democracy and telling him how much he admired him and everyone who
loved freedom in that small country that was beset by so many troubles,
I mean, your hearts would have gone out to Bob Dornan.
Of course, his other idol, his other hero, was Cardinal Obando y
Bravo, that brave Catholic leader in Nicaragua who dared to stand up to
the communist Sandinistas. He was always being oppressed by that group,
but he hung in there, and Bob Dornan loved him for that.
Bob Dornan loved our freedom, and that is one reason he went to
Vietnam eight times. He went there as a combat photographer on five
different occasions. Nobody else has done that.
My colleague mentioned that Bracelet, that POW bracelet that so many
people wore. What a great idea that was. Think of all the hope that
that gave people over the years and comfort that it gave them. It gave
them a feeling, whenever they saw another person wearing the bracelet,
they knew that this American was in solidarity with them, that they
appreciated their people that had been left, the POWs and MIAs.
I know that bureaucracy came to the conclusion when the Clinton
administration felt like it had to recognize communist Vietnam and they
felt like they had to do that and so they pushed aside the 800-and-some
odd sightings of POWs that had been reported by boat people and other
folks that had fled that country. But Bob Dornan, even when that became
an uncomfortable position for a person in Washington, D.C., a
Washington that wanted to move over, on to other issues and move on to
the issues of big business doing business in communist Vietnam, Bob
Dornan held tough.
We can lose a lot of things in this life and in this political life,
but he never lost his loyalty to an issue or his loyalty to his
friends. That loyalty was something that every Member of Congress who
walks onto the House floor should take a lesson from.
Mr. STEARNS. My colleague is correct there. I would like to reclaim
my time for a moment here to also make the emphasis that Bob Dornan,
while he had a national agenda and was concerned about the military
personnel and had a humanitarian agenda, he was also a very wonderful,
strong advocate for his congressional district. This is an individual
that worked hard in his district, was available, was willing to listen
to anybody at any time.
I just want to talk a little bit about what he has done in his
congressional district. Because the people might know Bob Dornan
because of the bracelet. They might know about him because of his
oratorical skills, about his advocacies for pro-life. They might talk
about his traveling the country speaking against drugs and violent
crime and child pornography and some of the social issues. He was
willing to take a stand.
He has won the endorsement and respect from law enforcement agencies
and organizations around the country, but also, in his congressional
district, the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, Latino Peace
Officers Association, the National Association of Police Organizations,
Crime Victims United.
But here is just some of the sampling of the things that he has done
for the 46th District, his congressional district. He obtained more
than $1 million for the Santa Ana Fiesta Marketplace, which is very
important because it rebuilt the downtown Santa Ana neighborhood. He
obtained Federal funding to assist in cleaning up neighborhoods in
Buena Vista from a slum drug and prostitute area into a clean, drug-
free environment for our kids. This meant he went down into the
district, assessed the situation, and worked hard to get the Federal
funding.
Of course, my colleagues know we were in the minority at that point.
We were not in the majority. So to have a Member of Congress to get
this Federal funding back into the district in which he was in the
minority party is important to realize.
He assisted in obtaining police hiring grants to place new police
officers in Garden Grove and Santa Ana. He facilitated in the
construction of a four-acre police and fire training center in Santa
Ana. He worked to ensure that the Department of Defense cleans toxic
waste from El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, included a provision in
the Illegal Immigration Reform Bill to empower the cities in the 46th
district to apply for Federal reimbursement for costs associated with
incarcerating criminal aliens.
He helped obtain almost $1 million in Federal funds for Rancho San
Diego College, and he sponsored a breast health awareness fair in his
district.
So, I mean, the list goes on and on of the achievements in his
district on a local level for the people he represented. So even though
we know Bob for some of his national agenda, these achievements are
just a sample of what he has done just for the people in his district.
Mr. HUNTER. If the gentleman will further yield, and among those
people were some of the people who were the most defenseless and the
most without representation; and those, of course, are unborn children.
Today, when we have the awareness, this growing awareness, by America
that this late-term abortion, or partial-birth abortion, where a baby
is actually partially born and then killed by the abortionist, that is
waking America up to the horrors of abortion.
Bob Dornan was the advocate for a lot of little human beings who
could not vote, could not campaign for him, did not have PAC money. But
they were important for him because he had a big heart and because of
his religion.
You know, we used to have a lot of fun with Bob. I mean, Bob was a
guy who was an Irishman with a great sense of humor and a great sense
of fun, and he was great to be with.
But I will tell you, when he was a first sponsor of the right to
life, the fundamental right to life bill that was introduced here in
the House of Representatives, when you had a right to life issue on the
House floor, Bob Dornan was by far the most professional, most serious
legislator I have ever seen.
He, together with the great Henry Hyde and Chris Smith from New
Jersey and a lot of the rest of us who are kind of spear carriers in
the battle, he led that battle. He did such a great job, because when
Bob spoke from the heart, everybody heard him loud and clear.
Mr. STEARNS. Well, I think that is what happens, is that Bob Dornan
had this ability to project issues. Where a lot of us cannot create the
aura and the rhetoric necessary to bring this into the people's mind,
he could do this.
A lot of people would say that, if Bob Dornan gets ahold of an issue,
he does not let it go. He sort of root hog or die, sort of the cry that
the people had when they went West from the East in their covered
wagons. They were going to make it one way or the other. That is the
kind of determination that he had when he had an issue.
He was a very substantive Member of Congress. He had issues. He had
things he believed in. You know, I say to my colleague from San Diego,
there is no use being here. There is no use getting elected every year
if you do not stand for something. If you come here to go along and get
along, it makes no point.
You are on the board of the directors of this most wonderful, most
powerful country in the world economically and militarily. You should
not come to this district and hide. You should come to this district
and point the way, be a beacon of light, be a light that other people
can see and project what your ideas should be for all of America.
So I think Mr. Dornan did that in an unbelievable fashion. In a very
truthful
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way, he said, I am going to be a credible congressman. I am going to
state my mind. Only if 435 members would actively get engaged like Bob
Dornan can we actually come up with a solution which is right. Then the
people can say, is that a proper way? Is that truth or not? Bob Dornan
made those a strong advocate of ideas.
Mr. HUNTER. While he represented his people and his constituency, he
never let his principals be pushed aside by a poll.
We have the media always telling us polls are a bad thing in this
country, and you should not always stick your finger up in the wind to
see which way it is blowing before you make a decision as to what your
principals are. Bob Dornan never made a major decision based on which
way the wind was blowing. He had the principals, had that compass right
inside him.
Incidentally, one thing we have not mentioned is that he was the
Chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee on the Committee on National
Security. He was the guy, when he was a chairman of that subcommittee,
who authored the pay raise for every single man and woman who wears a
uniform and who put in literally dozens and dozens of incentives to be
in the military, incentives to stay, that helped retention, and all
kinds of things that were good for quality of life for our military
families. Military families never had a better friend in the House of
Representatives than Bob Dornan.
Mr. STEARNS. Do you remember when you were in leadership and you
assigned me as chairman of a personnel task force and, at that time, we
were discussing lifting the ban on gays in the United States military
and the new policy and we had several hearings? Bob Dornan was active
in that.
Perhaps a lot of Members did not necessarily agree with Bob Dornan.
But Bob Dornan had a strong principle in which he stated his position;
but, at the same time, he was willing to listen to other people on this
very controversial issue.
I remember having our hearings, of which you were helping us to bring
in witnesses. He would attend those hearings, and he would ask the most
concise and cogent questions. He helped to form our policy in the
Republican Party dealing with this whole policy.
Today, in this important area of, you know, lifting the ban on gays
in the military, he stood in the gap. I commend him for that.
Something else we should remember is that he participated in Dr.
Martin Luther King's historic march on Washington.
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A lot of Members of Congress watched it on TV. A lot of Members of
Congress said, well, that is just an issue I am not involved in.
But Bob Dornan believes in the rights of individuals. He does not
believe that any man or woman should be discriminated on the basis of
race, creed color, or national origin. So he was out there
participating, and you can see his picture in some of these photographs
from the civil rights movement, in which there is Bob Dornan, out there
participating. Because this is part of his personality. He wanted to
get involved, he knew it was the right thing to do.
He traveled to Mississippi to assist in efforts to register black
voters, despite death threats from the KKK.
Mr. HUNTER. Let's hold up on that one. Some Members of the media have
accused Bob of believing in ethnic differences and in oppressing ethnic
groups who want to register and vote.
So here is a guy who went to Mississippi when it was not very popular
to go to Mississippi, to help the black community to register and vote,
and who also marched with Martin Luther King, being accused of not
believing in the community of America. Bob Dornan believed in the
community of America probably more than anybody else who has ever
walked out on this House floor.
Mr. STEARNS. That is why earlier I mentioned that he is a true
humanitarian. He makes a statement in his life and in his past
activities that ``I believe freedom that works; I believe all men and
women should have the opportunity to enjoy success,'' and he was just a
patriot. He was an individual that was an active proactive individual,
with a high level of energy and an enormous intelligence.
So I think tonight, that is why you and I felt it so important to
come down here, because we were just moved, based on what we had seen
in the newspapers today, we thought, by golly, we have got to come down
here and talk about, as you pointed out, his participation in this
historic march on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King.
Mr. HUNTER. I think if Bob was here, he would say to us, ``You ain't
seen nothing yet,'' because Bob Dornan still possesses all those great
talents and that great heart for America. He has a lot of wonderful
kids and grandkids, and I am privileged to know some of them and have
spent a lot of great time with them. Robin and Kathy, and Mark and
Bobby, Jr., and Terry; and the grandkids, Ricky and Para, and Kevin and
Collin, and Anna and Haley, and, incidentally, that Haley is named
after I think Uncle Jack Haley, who was the Tin Man in the Wizard of
Oz. That is where Bob got some of the show business blood in his veins.
Erin, Robbie, Liam, Molly and Morgan.
Incidentally, Bobby Dornan, Jr., is a great buddy of mine, lives out
in Virginia. We were out working on a log cabin together, and he had
this little tiny baby in his arms, and I said, ``Who is this?'' And he
said, ``This is little Molly Dornan.''
I tell you, if you have ever seen Bob Dornan with little Molly and
the all the rest of them, and you have seen them on this bobsled run, I
mean, this thing is like the Olympics. I would not get on this run, but
Bob Dornan puts all these fearless grandkids together, bundles them all
down around him, and goes whipping down this bobsled run at about 100
miles per hour. Bob Dornan is one of the great grandfathers in American
history.
He also lets them pelt him with water balloons, and he showed an
extraordinary amount of restraint when all of these grandkids started
giving him the water balloon barrage.
Here is a great guy, great family man, great American. We are going
to see a lot more of him.
Mr. STEARNS. You point out his family tradition. As I recollect now,
I think he was been married about 43 years to one lovely woman----
Mr. HUNTER. Sally.
Mr. STEARNS. Sally. His family life exemplifies his whole life, in
the sense that he is a strong family man for family, God, and all the
decency that exists today in our culture.
So we will take another time to talk about our great friend and great
patriot, Bob Dornan, but on this evening, we have let our sentiments to
our colleagues be known.
Mr. HUNTER. God bless Bob Dornan and all those little Dornans.
Mr. STEARNS. God bless Bob Dornan.
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