Eco-thug: Helen Chenoweth - anti-environment congresswoman from Idaho

Sierra, May-June, 1996 by Paul Rauber

Most of the anti-environmental zealots spotlighted as "ecothugs" in this column thus far have objected, claiming that they are, in fact, misunderstood nature lovers. No such quibble is likely to come from Idaho Representative Helen Chenoweth (R), who takes the rhetoric of the "War on the Environment" literally.

"We are in a battle today that is far more insidious and dangerous as far as conquering our people and our soul than we have ever faced before," she told an Idaho church group. "Our land has been taken. It's time we reclaim our land."

For the Idaho congressman (as Chenoweth insists on being called), this is a religious war. "There is increasing evidence of a governmentsponsored religion in America," she declared on the House floor. "This religion, a cloudy mixture of New Age mysticism, Native American folklore, and primitive Earth worship, is being promoted and enforced by the Clinton administration in violation of our rights and freedoms." Critics scoffed that Chenoweth had finally gone off the deep end, but deep-enders are her core constituency. She rose up through the ranks of the Republican Party in Idaho by representing the John Birch Society, the so-called Wise Users, and the militia movement (for whom the Idaho Statesman calls her the "Poster child").

Chenoweth plays to the paranoia of far-rightists by fanning their delusions about mysterious black helicopters supposedly used by federal Fish and Wildlife agents to enforce environmental laws in Idaho. "I have never seen them," Chenoweth admitted to The New York Times. "But enough people in my district have become concerned that I can't just ignore it. We do have some proof "

The congressman also fears that federal environmental regulations are ushering in the one-world government long feared by the Birchers. Her evidence: the United Nations' designation of Yellowstone National Park as a world heritage site. (In real life, the U.N. label means only that the site has "outstanding universal value." The regulations under which it was designated were drawn up by Ronald Reagan's Interior Secretary, James Watt.)

In the Republican sweep in 1994, Chenoweth upset incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco. Noting her concern with endangered species (her campaign featured an "endangered salmon bake"), House Speaker Newt Gingrich appointed her to the Endangered Species Act task force headed by January/February EcoThug Richard Pombo (R-Calif). Her view of the issue is that "white men are an endangered species."

There are some indications, however, that Gingrich is tiring of Chenoweth, particularly after she bucked him by refusing to vote to reopen the federal government during the budget deadlock. In retaliation, the Speaker stood her up at a longscheduled fund-raiser in Idaho in January.

But neither official snubs nor public ridicule are likely to moderate the most radical member of a radical Congress. "Never underestimate her," warns Rick Johnson, director of the Idaho Conservation League. "She's the best grassroots organizer this state ever had. The more she talks, the more people laugh, but the more her base loves her."