Sandpoint Welcomes Chenoweth Lawmaker Gets Standing Ovation; ‘Liberal’ Heckler Shouted Down

A crowd of about 100 residents gave U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth a standing ovation Thursday before she opened a town meeting here.

“This is indicative of how America has begun to take its country back,” the Idaho Republican said, thanking residents for filling Community Hall in the middle of the afternoon.

Chenoweth fielded questions for about an hour and tried to ignore a heckler who wanted to argue with her.

“This Republican thing has been a Trojan horse for the rich,” the man shouted from the audience as others tried to quiet him. “You people are being hoodwinked. You people are afraid to hear me.”

Chenoweth’s supporters tired of the man’s interruptions and shouted him down, calling him a “nut” and “a liberal.” He stopped his outbursts after a police officer arrived to monitor the meeting.

The crowd was quite a contrast with the one Chenoweth faced Wednesday at the University of Idaho in Moscow.

There, she arrived with a police escort and bodyguard. The audience of 200 took her to task on issues from salmon recovery to arts funding. Some carried signs protesting her conservative stands.

Audience members occasionally shouted “liar” and laughed when she said she was establishing a national policy to protect water in the West.

But in Sandpoint, Chenoweth drew repeated applause for her conservative, “give government back to the people” responses.

She touched on topics ranging from the Endangered Species Act and term limits for federal judges to abolition of the Internal Revenue Service.

“Won’t it be nice to do away with the IRS?” she said, supporting the idea of a flat tax.

The congressman, as she prefers to be called, also talked about a task force she’s on whose goal is to dismantle the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

“We want to see them gone and the duties and responsibilities gone.”

Chenoweth also shared her support for a “sheriff first” bill. It would require federal agents to get written permission from the sheriff before taking any action in that particular county.

The Endangered Species Act and wolf relocation project in central Idaho also were hot topics.

“Gov. Phil Batt recently said Chenoweth raised such a stink about the wolf relocation in Idaho that they (the wolves) went back into Montana,” Chenoweth joked.

The project cost taxpayers about $1 million per transplanted wolf, she said. “That’s insane.”

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Kevin Keating Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this story.