THE 104TH CONGRESS : O.C. Lawmakers Help Lead GOP Charge

WASHINGTON — As House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Wednesday mounted the podium where Democrats had presided for the past 40 years, Rep. Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove flashed a wide smile at the newly anointed Speaker and twice made the sign of the cross, as if bestowing a blessing.

Elsewhere in the sea of Republicans cheering their triumphant takeover of Congress, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) thrust both thumbs high up in the air.

This was their day, and the GOP congressmen from Orange County were there to savor the moment. They celebrated, became media celebrities, and then quickly got to work.

Eager to seize the momentum, Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) were among those picked to help lead the charge for key rules changes that were part of the legislative agenda on this historic day.

Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) introduced three anti-illegal immigration bills, including one that would cut off all federal benefits except emergency medical care to illegal immigrants.

Rohrabacher spent the first official day of the 104th Congress lobbying for co-sponsorship of a bill to protect the patent terms of American inventors. And today, Dornan will help kick off the legislative battle for a Constitutional amendment to limit members of the House and Senate to 12 years in office.

“This is a new day,” said Dornan, casting his vote on the House floor for the new Speaker by bellowing, “Go Gingrich!” He later joked that he had made the sign of the cross “just in case (Gingrich) was a Dracula and we didn’t know it. But he didn’t recant.”

Even before the noontime swearing-in ceremonies, members of the Orange County delegation had already hit the airwaves to preach the doctrine of the newly empowered Republicanism.

Rohrabacher was interviewed by Fox television; Dornan, who on Tuesday spent an hour on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, followed up on Wednesday with interviews on G. Gordon Liddy’s talk show and on a radio program broadcasting from Cincinnati.

Cox, a former Reagan White House staffer who has ascended to a GOP leadership post, was featured in a front page Wall Street Journal article about the Republicans’ determination to reduce the scope and size of government.

Once inside the House Chamber, the new Republican-controlled Congress quickly set aside tradition.

On a day normally characterized by the ceremonial swearing-in of the new Congress and then immediately followed by a long recess, the GOP set a reform agenda that carried the debate into the night.

In the process, they voted on rules changes that the Republicans had long sought when they were powerless and angered by the dominance of strong Democratic chairmen. Among the GOP targets was the elimination of “proxy” voting in committee meetings.

“If we are going to have good government, it’s better to do (the power-dismantling reforms) on opening day,” Royce said. “There’s no better time to do it, before the Republicans begin to abuse power.”

Another GOP reform called for the banning of commemorative legislation that created the likes of National Pizza and Pasta Week.

Packard, among the most prolific legislators on opening day, said Republicans have earned the chance to govern.

“Many of us feel we have not been called upon (before now) to serve with the kind of tenacity and time . . . that we expected to do here,” he said.

In setting out the GOP agenda during his speech, Gingrich surprised some of the Orange County congressmen by the extent to which he reached out across the aisle to Democrats.

Rohrabacher, a battle-scarred veteran of the Democratic reign, doubted that Gingrich’s call for bipartisanship would be carried out. His comments reflected just how much the power has shifted.

“It requires two to tango,” Rohrabacher said. “The Democrats are very idealistic on the left, and they are even more on the left than they were last year. How can you work with people who are left-wing and less in power?”