Dana Rohrabacher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dana Rohrabacher | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1989– |
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| Preceded by | Dan Lungren |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | June 21, 1947 (age 59) Coronado, California |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Rhonda Carmony |
| Religion | Baptist |
Dana Tyron Rohrabacher (born June 21, 1947 in Coronado, California) is an American politician, who has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1989, currently representing California's 46th congressional district.
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[edit] Education
Rohrabacher graduated from Palos Verdes High School in Palos Verdes Estates, California, attended Harbor Junior College, and received his bachelor's degree in history from California State University, Long Beach in 1969. He received his master's degree in American Studies from the University of Southern California.
[edit] Tenure at the Reagan White House
Prior to his election to Congress in 1988, Rohrabacher served as Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan. For seven years he was one of the President's senior speechwriters. During his tenure at the White House, Rohrabacher played a leading role in the formulation of the Reagan Doctrine. He also helped formulate President Reagan's Economic Bill of Rights, a package of economic reforms that the President introduced in a speech before the Jefferson Memorial.
[edit] Congressional career
With Reagan soon leaving office, Rohrabacher left the Administration in 1988 to pursue the open House seat recently vacated by Dan Lungren. With the fundraising help of friend Oliver North, Rohrabacher was able to win the Republican primary and capture the seat, centered around northern coastal Orange County. A friend and fellow White House aide, Chris Cox, won a seat in the same election in southern Orange County. The pair remained close, though Cox — now chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission — rose in the party hierarchy while the more iconoclastic Rohrabacher charted his own course.
Rohrabacher was Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science Committee from 1997 until January 2005, having received a two-year waiver to serve beyond the six-year term limit.
As a senior member of the International Relations Committee, Rohrabacher led the effort to deny Most Favored Nation trading status to the People's Republic of China, citing that nation's dismal human rights record and opposition to democracy. His subcommittee assignments are East Asia and Pacific, and Middle East and South Asia.
[edit] Political positions
[edit] Illegal immigration
Rohrabacher is a staunch opponent of illegal immigration. He authored California's Proposition 187, which sought to deny immigrants without proper documentation any government services, including education for their children. In 2004 he proposed a bill to withhold emergency room services to people who cannot prove their immigration status. The proposed bill was overwhelmingly defeated [1].
On March 30, 2006, Rohrabacher decried a guest worker proposal as "the foul odor that's coming out of the United States Senate." He said that if illegal immigrants who do many farm jobs were deported, "the millions of young men who are prisoners around our country can pick the fruits and vegetables. I say, let the prisoners pick the fruits." [2][3]
[edit] Voting rights for DC residents
In January 2004, Rohrabacher proposed giving Washington, D.C. residents the right to vote for congressional representation by treating them as Maryland residents for the purpose of Congressional elections. [4]
[edit] Opposition to current Ethiopian government
In March 2005, Rohrabacher introduced HR 1061, the American Property Claims Against Ethiopia Act, which would "prohibit United States assistance to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia until the Ethiopian government returns all property of United States citizens". The bill was introduced by Rohrabacher at the behest of Gebremedhin Berhane, a former Eritrean national. His son, Petros, was described by the Daily Pilot News of Newport Beach, California as "one of Rep. Rohrabacher's surfing buddies".
On March 7, 2006, Rohrabacher introduced HR 4895, an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, "to limit the provision of the United States military assistance and the sale, transfer, or licensing of United States military equipment or technology to Ethiopia." [5]
[edit] Medical marijuana
Contrary to most Republican Party Members of Congress, Rohrabacher is a supporter of medicinal use of marijuana. He and Maurice Hinchey have jointly offered amendment to spending bill that prohibit the Department of Justice to prosecute patients who use marijuana for medical purpose.[6] Rohrabacher said conservatives should take states' rights into consideration when considering the issue of marijuana.
[edit] Global warming
Rohrabacher does not believe that the current global warming is manmade. During a congressional hearing on climate change on February 8, 2007, Rohrbacher theorized that previous warming cycles may have been caused by carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by "dinosaur flatulence." [7]
[edit] War in Iraq
Prior to the war, on the premier episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Rohrabacher claimed that Iraqis would be "throwing flowers on us and waving American flags." Since that time, he has continued to be a strong supporter of the President's Iraq policy.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Involvement with Jack Abramoff
Rohrabacher has been close friends of now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff since the mid-1980s. His relationship included the following:
- In 1999 Rohrabacher went on an Abramoff-funded trip to the Marshall Islands with John Doolittle (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), delegates of Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and 8 staffers.[8]
- In 2000, Abramoff listed Rohrabacher as one of the his references on his loan application for the purchase of SunCruz Casinos. "I don't remember it, but I would certainly have been happy to give him a good recommendation," Rohrabacher said in April 2005, when news reports first arose. "He's a very honest man." [9]
- In January 2002, Rohrabacher, took a six-day trip to Malaysia, accompanied by his wife and two of Abramoff’s then-partners at the firm Greenberg Traurig. According to House records and to Rohrabacher's spokesman, the Malaysia trip focused on terrorism and trade issues. The spokesman called the trip "very positive." [10]
- In April 2005, as Abramoff became the target of a grand jury investigation, Rohrabacher said that "Jack has made some mistakes," "but he is not the dishonest, malevolent, arrogant, wheeler-dealer that people are portraying. He is a fine man." [11]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has come to the defense of disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the Washington Post and else, saying he's a good person who's been unjustly criticized. Rohrabacher admits to being a longtime friend of Abramoff. An actual quote from Rohrabacher is as follows: "They're portraying Jack as a monster. I see him more as a good person who's done bad things and has to be punished for doing bad things.... I think that he obviously has done some things that are wrong and illegal and he's going to have to pay the price for it.” Rohrabacher has publicly taken the position that he thinks that “... a lot of other things that have been characterized as corruption on the part of Abramoff are actually standard operating procedures for lobbying in Washington, D.C., arranging trips and things like that. So I think that he's received a lot of unjust criticism."
- In July 2005, Rohrabacher said that he had been eating at Signatures, a restaurant owned by Abramoff, at Abrmaoff's expense once or twice a month, and that the meals fell under the friendship exemption in House rules. He also said he tried to take Mr. Abramoff out regularly, paying for the lobbyist's meals in return. "Just because you are a member of Congress doesn't mean you have to give up your friendships," Rohrabacher said, adding that "it was dinner with a friend and I didn't think of it as a gift."
- In December 2005, Rohrabacher again defended Abramoff, telling the Washington Post: "I think he's been dealt a bad hand and the worst, rawest deal I've ever seen in my life. Words like bribery are being used to describe things that happened every day in Washington and are not bribes." [12]
- In March 2006, following Abramoff's guilty plea of fraud in the SunCruz case, Rohrabacher was the sole member of Congress who wrote the judge in the case to urge leniency in sentencing. "I think when he is being punished for the things he did that were wrong, some of the things that he did that were right and admirable in the past should be taken into consideration," Rohrabacher said in an interview. In his letter to the judge, Rohrabacher described "a far different Jack than the profit-seeking megalomaniac portrayed in the press." "Jack was a selfless patriot for most of the time I knew him," the congressman wrote, recalling his friend as an ardent anti-Communist during the Cold War. [13]
[edit] Involvement with Afghanistan and the Taliban
Rohrabacher had a history of involvement in Afghanistan dating back to the Cold War, when he openly supported the groups that were fighting troops from the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. [14]. In late 1988, Rohrabacher went to Afghanistan:
- After I left the White House and was elected to Congress, but before I was sworn into Congress, I knew I had that two months between November and January to do things that I could never do once I was elected to Congress. I chose to hike into Afghanistan as part of a small Mujahedin unit and to engage in a battle against the Russian and communist forces near and around the city of Jalalabad.[15]
In the November/December 1996 issue of Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Rohrabacher was reported as saying that the Taliban were not terrorists or revolutionaries, that they would develop a disciplined society that would leave no room for terrorists, and that the Taliban posed no threat to the United States.[16]
However, in a September 11, 1998 editorial in the The Washington Post, Rohrabacher strongly rebuked the Taliban for providing refuge to Osama bin Laden, mass killings of Shi'ites and ethnic Uzbeks, Turks, and Tajiks, and restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and children:
It has been no secret that bin Laden has been sheltered by the Taliban. The Clinton administration was mute while one of the most violent anti-Western Muslim sects spilled into Afghanistan from their Pakistan-based "religious schools" and took control of the capital. We remained paralyzed while they moved to destroy moderate Muslim forces. While administration officials expressed concern of the Taliban's complete denial of rights for women, it was little more than lip service. Even modest support from the United States for moderate Muslim forces in Afghanistan and serious political pressure on Pakistan could have thwarted the takeover of this strategically important country by these militant extremists. The danger of the spread of fanaticism expressed by the newly independent republics of Central Asia was smugly ignored.
During the summer of 2001, Rohrabacher made a trip to Qatar that was paid for by the Islamic Institute and the Government of Qatar, according to Rohrabacher’s financial disclosure forms. While in Qatar, Rohrabacher, Grover Norquist, and Khaled Saffuri met with Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil. Wakil reportedly asked for help in increasing the amount of foreign aid sent by the United States to Afghanistan, apparently in exchange for U.S. oil company UNOCAL being allowed to construct of an oil pipeline through Afghanistan. If Rohrabacher was conducting diplomacy, he was in violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits citizens from doing so if not in an official capacity. Rohrabacher told wire service reporters who were present in Doha, Qatar at the time that he had discussed a “peace plan” with the Taliban. But Norquist, a close associate of Rohrabacher, said that the meeting happened accidentally and that it included Rohrabacher yelling at them about blowing up the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.[17]
The Taliban later announced in Kabul that it had rejected what it considered were unreasonable demands by the U.S. side. Rohrabacher’s staff would not answer questions about the Taliban talks. [18]
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Rohrabacher claimed that the attacks were due to incompetence on the part of the Clinton administration. [19]
[edit] Payment for 30-year-old screenplay
On November 4, 2005, The Los Angeles Times reported that Rohrabacher "used his influence to open doors in Washington for a Hollywood producer pitching a television show after the producer paid him a $23,000 option on a nearly 30 year old screenplay." The producer, Joseph Medawar, has since been indicted on fraud charges by the FBI and has pled not guilty. The question is whether the producer paid him the money for the screenplay or if the money was for the introductions to congressional and federal officials conducted by Rohrabacher. Rohrabacher claims that the introductions were done in good faith and were nothing that was not done regularly for legitimate causes, and that the introductions have only become an issue because of Joseph Medawar's misdeeds.
In May 2006, Rohrabacher, through his press secretary, announced that he will return the $23,000. The decision was made public shortly before Medawar took responsibility in a United States District Court for bilking about $3.4 million from about 50 investors. [20]
[edit] Family
In August 1997, Rohrbacher married Orange County political operative (and fellow surfer) Rhonda Carmony. On April 27, 2004, he and his wife became parents to triplets.
[edit] Libertarianism
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Rohrabacher was an influential activist in the radical anarcho-capitalist movement, starting from about 1969, [21] though he drifted towards the mainstream along with Charles Koch, the billionaire who helped fund his political campaigns.[citation needed]
He worked for a while in the early 1970s as an editorial writer for The Register (today called The Orange County Register) newspaper in Santa Ana, California, then a conservative newspaper with a libertarian bent. [22]
In addition to surfing, Rohrabacher is an amateur musician who in the late 1980s appeared, alongside Chris Cox, to sing at the Orange County Press Club's musical lampooning annual political events.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Rohrabacher was influenced by the anarcho-capitalist ideas of Robert LeFevre, who had moved his Freedom School to Santa Ana, California, renaming it Rampart College. [23] Rohrabacher would appear at various meetings and conferences, including the "Left-Right Festival of Mind Liberaton" in 1969. [24] Rohrabacher would often play the four-string banjo and sing his original libertarian-themed songs, including "Individual Man": "I don't own nobody. Nobody does own me. I'm just an individual man, just want to be free...."
[edit] 2006 election
In November 2006, Rohrabacher faced Democrat Jim Brandt (neither had any opponent in the June primary). The two faced each other in the 2004 elections, with Rohrabacher defeating Brandt by a 62.0%-32.5% margin (a Libertarian and a Green split the remaining 5.5%).
[edit] External links
- U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher official House site
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Federal Election Commission - Dana Rohrabacher campaign finance reports and data
- Dana Rohrabacher at the Notable Names Database
- On the Issues - Dana Rohrabacher issue positions and quotes
- OpenSecrets.org - Dana Rohrabacher campaign contributions
- Project Vote Smart - Representative Dana T. Rohrabacher (CA) profile
- SourceWatch Congresspedia - Dana Rohrabacher profile
- Washington Post - Congress Votes Database: Dana Rohrabacher voting record
- Congressman Dana Rohrabacher official campaign site
- Planetary Defense
| Preceded by Dan Lungren |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 42nd congressional district 1989 – 1993 |
Succeeded by George Brown, Jr. |
| Preceded by Duncan Hunter |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 45th congressional district 1993 – 2003 |
Succeeded by Mary Bono |
| Preceded by Loretta Sanchez |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 46th congressional district 2003 – present |
Incumbent |
Categories: Articles lacking sources from June 2006 | All articles lacking sources | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1947 births | Living people | German-Americans | Current members of the United States House of Representatives | Distinguished Eagle Scouts | Members of the United States House of Representatives from California
