What about Bob?

LOLITA HARPER

I was sitting in the office this week and I got to thinking:

What about Bob?

There are fewer than five weeks until the primary election, and I

have yet to see any action from Bob Dornan’s campaign to unseat Rep.

Dana Rohrabacher in the 46th Congressional District.

We were all aware that the former congressman -- also known as B-1

Bob -- finally made good on a 13-year threat to run against

Rohrabacher when he filed with the Orange County registrar’s office

as a contender for the 46th District.

What is not so well known is, where Bob is now?

I checked online for a Bob Dornan for Congress website and found

nothing. Instead, I found links to his radio talk show in Virginia,

speeches he made and of course, his more, um, colorful quotes about

various things.

Such as his comments about President Clinton’s “silk, girlie-girl”

running shorts that displayed his “white dough-boy thighs”; comments

to a television interviewer that “every lesbian spear-chucker in this

country is hoping I get defeated”; and a quote in the Daily Pilot

saying he had “30 IQ points on Rohrabacher.”

These lively comments made me want to talk to the man who was

dubbed “the Mouth of the House” during the 18 years he served in

Congress, but without a website, I had no general contact

information. Luckily, I came across the phone number for Dornan that

was registered with the county registrar’s office.

I called and was greeted with a cute message with the voice of a

toddler, saying, “Hi.” A woman’s voice then prompted callers to leave

a message and then the toddler came back and said, “Bye.” I was

stunned. It didn’t seem like a voice I would associate with a staunch

70-year-old, but then again, maybe I am missing something. I left a

message, but at press time, I had not received a call back.

The, um, interesting voicemail further piqued my curiosity, and I

was on a quest to find Bob. Looking for a mature, pale-skinned,

opinionated conservative in Orange County is similar to a “Where’s

Waldo” search, so I decided to try those who would be closest to him

-- at least politically.

Jo Ellen Allen, the spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Orange

County, said she hadn’t heard from Dornan since his announcement to

run against Rohrabacher.

“I don’t think anybody has heard a whole lot from him,” Allen

said.

Allen does not live in the 46th District, which stretches along

the coast from Palos Verdes to Newport Beach and inland to Costa

Mesa, so she has not seen any mailers from Dornan -- if there are

any. And neither Dornan nor his representatives were at the Orange

County Republican Central Committee meeting this month, as far as

Allen could tell.

“I haven’t heard anything from him since he came back,” Allen

said.

A Republican Party of Orange County staffer who refused to give

her name said she had had trouble getting ahold of Dornan as well.

“I haven’t seen anything either, and I have been trying to reach

him, and I can’t. I don’t know what to tell you,” she said.

As a last ditch effort, I decided to ask the “enemy camp” if they

had heard anything from B-1 Bob lately. A Rohrabacher staffer in

Washington, D.C said it seemed “all quiet on the western shore.”

Rohrabacher said the most he has heard from Dornan is “little

sniping coming from here and there.” But the incumbent congressmen

isn’t taking Dornan’s silence as a sign that he has backed off.

“Knowing his reputation, we expect much tougher attacks in the

next month,” Rohrabacher said. “He is generally mean and nasty, and

I’m sure that will emerge.”

While official campaigning seems to be at a minimum, Dornan did

appear at a speaking engagement on Tuesday for the Republican Women

of Palos Verdes that Rohrabacher was also at. Rohrabacher said his

opponent spent nine of 10 minutes charming the women by complimenting

their beautiful town and telling nostalgic tales of previous

political campaigns waged on that very soil.

Then there was the one minute he spent accusing Rohrabacher of

taking $35,000 from terrorists -- an allegation the incumbent calls

ridiculously false.

“It’s a lie,” Rohrabacher said. “He is just taking eerie,

Arabic-sounding last names and saying they are terrorists. Bob Dornan

is Jekyll and Hyde. One minute he is charming and then all of the

sudden, it’s like, ‘Oh, by the way, arrrrrrgh.’”

Rohrabacher said he is ready for Dornan to start “heaping on the

abuse.”

That is, if Dornan ever makes a showing in this race. This is the

third time the man has vowed to knock Rohrabacher off his

congressional pedestal. The first two times he failed to make good on

that promise. A failed showing in the upcoming primaries would

constitute a third strike.

So the question remains: Where is Bob?

* LOLITA HARPER is the community forum editor. She also writes

columns Wednesdays and Fridays. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275

or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.