Chenoweth’S Style Sets Her Above Others

During her three terms in office, Congressman Helen Chenoweth-Hage has been vilified relentlessly by Democrats and other political opponents. To them, she’s the poster child of the militia movement. A nut case. Dumb as a mud fence. Extreme - on abortion, gun rights, property rights.

The national media has piled on, too, blasting the Idaho Republican for an occasional outrageous statement and her politically incorrect stands.

The Progressive once ranked her among “The Ten Dimmest Bulbs in Congress.” Magazine writer Gail Collins listed her among the “Women in power who give women a bad name.” Sydney Blumenthal, now a White House operative, buried his hatchet in her for the New Yorker. Salon e-magazine used unnamed sources to dredge up dirt on her for criticizing President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair.

Laudably, Chenoweth-Hage has handled the vitriol with courage, conviction and charm. She has continued to grant media interviews although she knows most reporters are hostile to her conservative views. She has remained true to her principles, including her 1994 promise to serve only three terms in Congress. Her charm and grace under attack never stood out more than last weekend in Missoula when she was attacked by an environmental radical from Moscow.

Her nastier opponents could learn a lesson in civility by studying how their archenemy handled the situation.

Chenoweth-Hage was speaking at a congressional hearing on forest health when Randall Mack charged at her shouting, “You’re the greatest threat to the forest” - and hit her with a rotting salmon. The congressman was unflappable. While Mack was being carted off for a well-deserved stint in jail, Chenoweth-Hage cleaned salmon flakes from her hair and jacket. Later, she said people have their own agendas, and sometimes find unfortunate ways to express them.

Then, she flashed the wit that has made her popular with most Idaho Republicans as well as Joe Sixpack: “I would like to say that I find it amusing that they used salmon. “I guess salmon must not be endangered anymore.”

Unquestionably, some of Chenoweth-Hage’s wounds have been self-inflicted. Saying that the “Anglo-Saxon male” was the one genuinely endangered species was certain to rile environmentalists and others. She didn’t endear herself to green community by denouncing Sierra Club positions as “eco-lunacy.” Nor by serving salmon at fund-raisers.

Chenoweth-Hage, however, targets ideas, not individuals. She turns the other cheek when attacked, even physically by an overwrought opponent. That sets her above the character assassins who were unable to beat her at the ballot box.