A good description of the error exists in the forums. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-929640-highlight-wicd.html The problem does not exist with wicd-1.7.2.4-r1 which is marked unstable. Another solution is to modify /etc/wicd/wireless-settings.conf manually if you know what to look for.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 416579 ***