--- f:/test-mailman-2.1/Mailman/Handlers/Decorate.py	2008-06-11 15:09:34.000000000 -0700
+++ f:/test-mailman/Mailman/Handlers/Decorate.py	2008-10-28 08:53:30.156250000 -0700
@@ -98,8 +98,18 @@
         # TK: Try to keep the message plain by converting the header/
         # footer/oldpayload into unicode and encode with mcset/lcset.
         # Try to decode qp/base64 also.
-        uheader = unicode(header, lcset, 'ignore')
-        ufooter = unicode(footer, lcset, 'ignore')
+        if isinstance(header, str):
+            uheader = unicode(header, lcset, 'ignore')
+        elif isinstance(header, unicode):
+            uheader = header
+        else:
+            assert False, 'Adding msg_header: header not string or unicode'
+        if isinstance(footer, str):
+            ufooter = unicode(footer, lcset, 'ignore')
+        elif isinstance(footer, unicode):
+            ufooter = footer
+        else:
+            assert False, 'Adding msg_footer: footer not string or unicode'
         try:
             oldpayload = unicode(msg.get_payload(decode=True), mcset)
             frontsep = endsep = u''