WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- A sign above the congressional office door of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher sums up his mindset: "Fighting for freedom and having fun."

That might help explain why the California Republican, who loves a good battle over space issues on Capitol Hill, was cruising his district's scenic coastline in his Buick Aurora recently when a reporter reached him by cell phone.

It turned out Rohrabacher, chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, was taking time out from the wars in Washington for a different sort of conquest -- catching the perfect curl at his favorite surf spot, Huntington Beach.

"I make a lot of waves in Washington and I hope they are big waves," he told SPACE.com.

Rohrabacher's "fight for freedom" these days involves more than surfing.

He is a strident advocate for supremacy in space, a philosophy shaped along a winding road from libertarian activist to White House speechwriter in the Reagan administration.

Rohrabacher, 53, was among the White House staffers who helped craft President Reagan's speeches for the 1980s-era Strategic Defense Initiative, a space-based defense program nicknamed "Star Wars."

Today, a decade after the end of the Cold War, Rohrabacher still is fighting for greater access to space. But now it's U.S. companies he wants to see thrive in orbit.

"Before we get into anything else we need to dramatically bring down the cost of getting into space," he said.

Since he left the White House 12 years ago for Congress, Rohrabacher has been preoccupied with spurring commercial investment in space transportation.

His interest is understandable: several leading aerospace companies are located in his district including Boeing's space division, the largest employer.

Rohrabacher is a major proponent of a plan to replace NASA's aging space shuttle fleet with a new type of reusable launch vehicle that would be built by a private company.

To that end, he has introduced a tax-cut plan he says could bring billions of dollars into space transportation by making zero-gravity a "zero-tax" enterprise zone.

Rohrabacher credits his parents with his love of technology -- especially his father, a former Marine fighter pilot who moved the family all over the country.

"They were really the quintessential Americans in their faith in freedom and technology," said Rohrabacher, who lived in 10 different cities by the time he was 16.

In the mid-1960s, Rohrabacher forged his own political views as a libertarian activist in Orange County, California. He later joined "Young Americans for Freedom," a national right-wing youth group that was created in the home of arch-conservative William F. Buckley.

After graduating with a history degree from Long Beach State in 1969, Rohrabacher took a job as an editorial writer for the Orange County Register, then a conservative newspaper with a libertarian bent. He later got a Masters degree in American studies from the University of Southern California.

At the Register, Rohrabacher wrote scathing editorials against leftist sentiments as Vietnam War protests swept the nation.

"He had really great arguments and as a speaker he was very, very good," recalled Ken Grubbs, now an associate editor at Investor's Business Daily, who had hired Rohrabacher.

"He was both relaxed and diligent, personable and committed to the cause of advancing human liberty," Grubbs said.

When Ronald Reagan became president in 1980, Rohrabacher turned his sights on Washington. He served as one of Reagan's speechwriter and later a special assistant from 1981-88.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (right) with his wife, fellow surfer, Rhonda Carmony

Reagan, said Rohrabacher, was "the greatest male figure in my life other than my father. He taught me how to be decisive but also how to be nice to people."

Those who know him call Rohrabacher an idealist and a clever orator who can dish his opinion to anyone, whether he's grilling NASA or railing against human rights violations in China.

"Dana's the right person to go to fight and spill his blood over a value and a cause," said former Hill aide Jim Muncy, who has known Rohrabacher for 17 years and served as his science advisor. Muncy now heads PoliSpace, a space consulting firm in Arlington, Virginia.

"Dana is not going to go after someone in a nasty or mean manner. He's not going to fight with people, except about ideas," Muncy said.

Rohrabacher's ideas for space are grandiose. One congressional aide likened the congressman's vision for space in American society to those fanciful Collier's magazine covers in the 1950s that depicted hotels on the moon and mining operations on distant planets.

As Rohrabacher sees it, his greatest accomplishment has been leading the charge in Congress to support NASA Administrator Dan Goldin as he steered the space agency away from big-budget missions to the "faster, better, cheaper" ones.

"I've been fighting that flash and glitter approach to NASA for the last 10 years," Rohrabacher said. "I think Dan Goldin has done a tremendous job.

But beyond the battles, there has been time for fun, too, in the last decade.

Rohrabacher, whose first marriage ended in divorce, got married again in the fall of 1997 to the woman he calls his "surfer girl," Rhonda Carmony.

He credits her with getting him hooked on surfing, which they like to do together. Carmony also manages his re-election campaigns.

His loyalty to surfing runs deep. He's been known to ride in Orange County parades with his surfboard in the backseat.

"The fact is, technology has impacted space travel the same way it's impacted surfboards," Rohrabacher said. "It has allowed people with moderate skills like myself to go out and enjoy it."