Well, yes, you'd think that works, but no - it doesn't. I've added various forms of return ( ctrl-v return, \r , \n , etc ) to no avail. Thanks for the suggestion, but no fix.
Another interesting tidbit: If I use kdcop, find an existing konsole, and use sendSession to set a command - it works as advertised. Similarly, if I modify the script pasted here to use an existing konsole, everything works.
Unfortunately, this isn't quite what I'm looking for.
Any one have any other suggestions? Is this a problem with some semi-obscure KDE setting, or window focus behavior, sunspots, gamma radiation, ... ?
Dan