Hypocrisy Makes For Shaky Platform

Sat., Sept. 12, 1998

By D.F. Oliveria daveo@spokesman.com (509) 319-0354

Rep. Helen Chenoweth should pull those political television advertisements questioning President Clinton’s integrity - and spend some time reflecting on her own personal shortcomings.

In a bizarre turn of events, the Idaho Republican admitted to The Idaho Statesman this week that she had a six-year affair with a married man that ended 14 years ago. In doing so, she tried to draw a distinction between her conduct and the president’s, saying she was a private citizen and a single woman at the time.

Yes, there are differences between Clinton’s White House trysts with an intern half his age and Chenoweth’s affair with her business partner, Vern Ravenscroft. Chenoweth hasn’t been accused of perjury, obstructing justice, witness tampering or abuse of power.

But there are parallels, too.

Clinton and Chenoweth lied about their relationships, and both portray themselves as defenders of family values. In 1995, Chenoweth blatantly lied when asked by a Spokesman-Review reporter about her long-rumored relationship with Ravenscroft. The current ad that correctly accuses Clinton of damaging the presidency proves Chenoweth shares one other undesirable characteristic with the nation’s leader: hypocrisy.

Her own words condemn her.

In the political ad, Chenoweth utters this damning sentence: “I believe that personal conduct and integrity does (sic) matter.” Personal conduct and integrity do matter, of course - in practice, as well as in professing. The ads prompted The Idaho Statesman to pursue a story about Chenoweth’s illicit relationship. Nothing rouses the media like a whiff of hypocrisy.

Ironically, Chenoweth first won office in 1994, one week after Larry LaRocco, a two-term Democratic congressman, was caught in his own sex scandal. After lying during his 1992 campaign about a fling, LaRocco admitted he’d had an affair with his sales assistant while working at a Boise stock brokerage firm.

Many believe the scandal tipped the tight contest to Chenoweth. It certainly didn’t help LaRocco.

It’ll be interesting to see if the social conservatives who form Chenoweth’s base will rally around the conservative firebrand now, after calling for LaRocco’s head four years ago. And, if the Democrats who defended LaRocco’s peccadillo and Clinton’s serial lechery will use Chenoweth’s admission against her. Hypocrisy, after all, is common as dirt.

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