Another COM question

[Volucris]

I get the following error when I call my Python COM object though VB:

Unexpected Python Error: exceptions.UnicodeError: ASCII encoding error:
ordinal not in range(128)

This only happens with decrypt(); encrypt() seems fine. Here's my code:
--py--
class Engine:
    #COM server stuff
    _public_methods_ = ['encrypt', 'decrypt']
    _reg_progid_ = "Demo.Engine"
    _reg_clsid_ = "{7A99346E-2895-43FA-8E3C-2AD441521312}"

    def encrypt(self, data, password):
        password = str(password)
        if len(password) < 1: raise ValueError, "Password is empty string."
        import rotor
        data = str(data)
        e = rotor.newrotor(password)
        data = e.encrypt(data)
        return data

    def decrypt(self, data, password):
        password = str(password)
        if len(password) < 1: raise ValueError, "Password is empty string."
        import rotor
        data = str(data)
        e = rotor.newrotor(password)
        data = e.decrypt(data)
        return data

--VB--
Private Sub Command1_Click() 'Encrypt button
    Dim ce As Object, p As String
    p = InputBox("Password:")
    Set ce = CreateObject("Demo.Engine")
    Text1.Text = ce.encrypt(Text1.Text, p)

End Sub

Private Sub Command2_Click() 'Decrypt button
    Dim ce As Object, p As String
    p = InputBox("Password:")
    Set ce = CreateObject("Demo.Engine")
    Text1.Text = ce.encrypt(Text1.Text, p)
End Sub

Does this have something to do with COM dealing in Unicode? Or what?
greg