Somethings Fishy -- Protester Pelts Congresswoman With Rotting Salmon

The Associated Press

M I S S O U L A, Mont., Sept. 17  A 20-year-old Idaho protester was arrested after flinging rotting salmon on U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth-Hage at the start of a congressional field hearing on forest health Saturday morning.

Chenoweth-Hage, R-Idaho, was not injured in the attack, but the hearing was recessed for an hour while she cleaned salmon flakes from her hair and jacket shoulders.

The man, identified as Randall Mark of Moscow, Idaho, wascharged with felony assault, disorderly conduct and obstructing a police officer. He was booked into the Missoula County Detention Facility on $16,000 bond.

Rep. Rick Hill, R-Mont., and Chenoweth-Hage, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, held a field hearing at the University of Montana to discuss the summers catastrophic wildfires.

Lunged at Congresswoman

Mark was sitting alone near the front of the lecture hall when Chenoweth-Hage opened the hearing. Already the target of a protest rally outside the lecture hall, Chenoweth-Hage was three sentences into her prepared opening remarks when Mark rushed down the aisle shouting you are the greatest threat to the forest, lunged at the congresswoman and threw the salmon.

Mark was arrested by university security. Gov. Marc Racicot, who was sitting nearby waiting to testifyand was himself the target of bison intestines thrown by an environmentalist several years ago - held the door open as Mark was taken away.

In January, Mark was sentenced to 60 days behind bars with 45 suspended, and a year of supervised release for blocking forest roads in Idaho County last summer.

Hill, who was sitting next to Chenoweth-Hage when she was attacked, apologized to the congresswoman when the session reconvened and appealed to the audience for good behavior.

I Am Embarrassed

The people of Montana deserve the right to have a discussion about these issues, Hill said. I am embarrassed, but also disgusted that the people of Montana could be denied the right to have this hearing. We have to be able to discuss our differences with civility.

Conservationists in the crowd also apologized to the congresswoman, who is known for her conservative views and clashes with both the Forest Service and environmentalists. None knew Mark or if he represented any particular group or cause. He is not a student at the university.

After the hearing, Chenoweth-Hage commented that people have their own agendas, and sometimes find unfortunate ways to express them.

I would like to say that I find it amusing that they used salmon, she said with a smile. I guess salmon must not be endangered anymore.

Chenoweth-Hage is a critic of federal attempts to protect Northwest salmon and has said the fish must not be endangered if it can be bought in cans at a supermarket.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), September 17, 2000

Answers

Forgot the LINK

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), September 17, 2000.

Thanks, hmmmm. That just tickles the shit out of me. I detest that Chenoweth-Hage. Hell, I see she's added another name to her moniker. Some hardup fool must have married her. She's the biggest threat to the entire environment, along with the jackals from Alaska, that exists in congress. What a bitch!

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), September 17, 2000.

Gilda.......you are sometimes correct. This is almost right. But you don't have to smack her with a fish to know that some of her "views" are WHACK-A-DOO and you may know that I have asked the POPE to declare Barry Goldwater a Saint even though he was an Episcopalian.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 17, 2000.