Roy,
Did you change the root password via:
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('secret_password');
I've run into this in the past. I've made the same mistake several times. There is no reason to change the root password. The default MySQL root password is a 76-character random string, and is synchronized with the default LDAP password. It is different for every system, so there is no security impact from leaving this password at the default. The system occasionally needs to make database changes, and it relies on the password remaining at the default to make those changes.
Try resetting the MySQL root password like this:
[root@e-smith /root] # /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld stop
[root@e-smith /root] # /etc/e-smith/events/actions/conf-mysql-password
[root@e-smith /root] # /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld start