Chenoweth’s skeletons come back to haunt her

Idaho’s self-righteous Helen Chenoweth apparently wasn’t paying attention when far more skilled hypocrites discovered that holier-than-thou moral lectures can boomerang when skeletons are discovered in their closets.

Congresswoman Chenoweth found herself hoist with her own petard only hours after her new TV political commercial denouncing President Clinton’s behavior and proclaiming that "personal conduct and integrity does matter" hit the airwaves.

Confronted with her own skeleton, Congresswoman Chenoweth confessed to Idaho Statesman reporters that, yes, she indeed carried on for six years in her pre-politics days with a very married former legislator and candidate for governor, Vern Ravenscroft.

Not one to admit mistakes any more than Bill Clinton, Congresswoman Chenoweth writhed and wriggled in hopes for an escape from the boiling water of hypocrisy.

Finally, her illogical logic concluded that Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky was immoral, her affair with a married man as a self-righteous private citizen was not immoral.

So much for the convenient politics of shedding guilt.

Congresswoman Chenoweth is no rarity. She’s merely one of many trapped in hypocrisy by the political jingoism of the ‘90s – the over-used, much-abused "family values" slogan.

Some clever Republican wordsmith dreamed up this catch phrase for politicians of self-proclaimed virtue with which to impress voters with their self-styled purity and probity.

Then-Vice President Dan Quayle popularized "family values" in his attacks on the TV character Murphy Brown in the 1992 presidential campaign.

But, alas, if Quayle becomes a serious contender for the presidency, he, too might find his boasts of virtue backfiring.

In his days as a congressman from Indiana, reporters discovered that he and two male pals went to Florida one weekend with a dishy blond female Washington lobbyist.

When discovered, the married Quayle and his pals stammered out the explanation that the three guys and a gal were in Palm Beach to "play bridge."

Uh-huh.

Another Republican presidential wannabe, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, carries the burden of confessed adulterous behavior that destroyed his first marriage, not to mention his born-again awakening to campaign finance reform after being one of five politicians whom master swindler Charles Keating tried to buy with lavish contributions.

Indiana’s Congressman Dan Burton, also of the "family values" set, admits fathering a child out of wedlock during an adulterous affair some years ago, which pretty much emasculates his hope of ever claiming special virtue.

And then there’s Holy Roller televangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert, who preached virtue in the pulpit while practicing adultery in the bedroom.

As Congress poises to judge Bill Clinton’s licentious behavior with a woman half his age in an Oval Office anteroom, the waiting and guessing game in Washington is who among the married "family values" elite will next be exposed for sexual hank panky.

Gone are the days when the palsy-walsy Washington press corps winked and overlooked drunks and lechers in Congress.

Politicians can blame themselves for a snoopy press: they invite suspicions with holier-than-thou pretentiousness and using double standards in public and private behavior.

Just as Congresswoman Chenoweth trapped herself by attempting to use Washington’s oldest, most cynical political ploy in her boomeranging TV ad, "do as I say, not as I do."