Chenoweth chokes on Maoist issue

Always susceptible to an attack of foot-in-mouth disease, Idaho’s flighty Helen Chenoweth may have done it again.

In spoiling for a fight against the wispy ghosts of communism, Congresswoman Chenoweth has turned to the U.S. paragon of anti-communism, the John Birch Society, to uncork a diatribe against NATO air attacks on Yugoslavia.

Writing in the Birch publication, The New American, Chenoweth roundly denounces President Clinton for allowing NATO to order U.S. forces into combat in the Balkans.

But what really eats at Chenoweth is this: U.S. attacks may help the Kosovo Liberation Army, which she belittles as a "collection of Maoist drug peddlers and terrorists."

Oh, such bad timing.

How, pray, will Chenoweth handle the news that Idaho wheat farmers may have struck it rich with a big sale to the home of Maoism, mainland China, where terrorism is an industry?

Will she rise on the floor of the Congress, or pen a new venomous diatribe for the Birchers, denouncing Idaho farmers for aiding Chinese Maoists?

Will she try to stop the sale of Idaho wheat to Chinese Maoists?

If helping Kosovo Maoists is a no-no in Chenoweth’s guide to patriotic ideals, then surely allowing Idaho farmers to enrich themselves off the heirs to Mao Tse-tung will stir her to a strident patriot attack on her constituents back home, right?

Wrong. Like most flag-waving politicians, Congresswoman Chenoweth knows the difference between Kosovo Maoists a half a world away and Idaho wheat farmers who help Maoists but also vote.