America's Royal Family is at it again ....

Thu May 04 2006

Police labor union officials asked acting Chief Christopher McGaffin this afternoon to allow a Capitol Police officer to complete his investigation into an early-morning car crash involving Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), son of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

From ROLL CALL: According to a letter sent by Officer Greg Baird, acting chairman of the USCP FOP, the wreck took place at approximately 2:45 a.m. Thursday when Kennedy's car, operating with its running lights turned off, narrowly missed colliding with a Capitol Police cruiser and smashed into a security barricade at First and C streets Southeast.

"The driver exited the vehicle and he was observed to be staggering," Baird's letter states. Officers approached the driver, who "declared to them he was a Congressman and was late to a vote. The House had adjourned nearly three hours before this incident. It was Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy from Rhode Island."

Baird wrote that Capitol Police Patrol Division units, who are trained in driving under the influence cases, were not allowed to perform basic field sobriety tests on the Congressman. Instead, two sergeants, who also responded to the accident, proceeded to confer with the Capitol Police watch commander on duty and then "ordered all of the Patrol Division Units to leave the scene and that they were taking over."

A source tells the DRUDGE REPORT: "It was apparent that the driver was intoxicated (stumbling) and claimed he was in a hurry to make a vote.

"When it became apparent who it was, instead of processing a normal DWI, the watch commander had the Patrol units clear the scene. The commander allowed other building officials drive Kennedy home."

This morning's incident comes just over two weeks after Kennedy was involved in a car accident in Rhode Island.

"I was involved in a traffic accident last night at First and C Street SE near the U.S. Capitol," Kennedy said in a written statement released by his office. "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident. I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake."

The elder Kennedy was heard saying to his son, "When I said don't do anything I wouldn't do, I didn't MEAN IT LIKE THAT!!"

And with apologies to James Taranto,

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.

He's apparently saying it was a bad mix of Ambien and some stomache ache med he was taking.

From June 27, 2003, Washington Post:

"As sometimes happens with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), he let his mouth race ahead of his brain Wednesday night at a gathering of Young Democrats at the Washington nightspot Acropolis. After presidential candidate Howard Dean spoke, Kennedy delivered an impassioned peroration against President Bush's tax cut. We hear that Kennedy told the crowd: 'I don't need Bush's tax cut. I have never worked a [bleeping] day in my life.' With that he got the audience's attention -- the dropping-jaws kind. 'He droned on and on, frequently mentioning how much better the candidates would sound the more we drank,' a witness told us. 'Finally, he had to be stopped by a DNC volunteer.'"

For CNN's take, click here.

Don't you just love it when drivers who don't do squat at the scene become "cooperative" a day later, once all physical evidence of any alleged intoxication is gone forever?

He sounds like a real stand-up guy.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Philip D Ray:
The elder Kennedy was heard saying to his son, "When I said don't do anything I wouldn't do, I didn't MEAN IT LIKE THAT!!"QUOTE]

TED KENNEDY: "Don't do anything I wouldn't do..."

PATRICK KENNEDY: "That leaves it pretty much wide open, doesn't it?"

glad to report that there have been no reports of women's panties found in the glove box. Dad should be proud

Maybe he'll get stuck in a room with Rush Limbaugh at rehab!

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/05/kennedy.accident/index.html
--------------------------------
Rep. Kennedy entering rehab after crash

Capitol Police: Initial probe of incident 'improper'

Friday, May 5, 2006; Posted: 6:38 p.m. EDT (22:38 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday that he will enter a rehabilitation program after crashing his car on Capitol Hill a day earlier.

CNN obtained a statement from a congressional source later Friday in which Capitol Hill Police said an initial probe showed supervisors did not handle the accident properly at the scene.

"I know that I need help," the Rhode Island Democrat said at an afternoon press conference, detailing what he called a long-term struggle with depression and addiction.

"I struggle every day with this disease, as do millions of Americans," Kennedy said. (Watch Kennedy detail his addiction problems -- 2:52)

He said he would be traveling Friday afternoon to Minnesota to seek help at the Mayo Clinic, where he was treated during the congressional recess at Christmas for an addiction to prescription pain medication. He said he returned "reinvigorated and healthy."

Kennedy, 39, said he had no recollection of the events surrounding the crash into a barricade on Capitol Hill early Thursday morning.

He said in a statement Thursday evening that he was apparently disoriented at the time of the crash after taking the prescribed amounts of a sleep aid and an anti-nausea drug.

"I am deeply concerned about my reaction to the medication and my lack of knowledge of the accident that evening. But I do know enough to know that I need to seek expert help," he said Friday.

"I hope that my openness today and in the past, and my acknowledgement that I need help, will give others the courage to get help if they need it," he said.

Asked as he left the room if he planned to resign, the six-term congressman responded, "I need to stay in the fight."

Kennedy's father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, said Friday he has "enormous respect for the work Patrick has done."

"All of us in the family admire his courage in speaking publicly about very personal issues and fully support his decision to seek treatment," the Massachusetts Democrat said. "He has taken full responsibility for events that occurred."

[-- snip --]

quote:

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Kennedy's father, Sen. Ted Kennedy, said Friday he has "enormous respect for the work Patrick has done."

"All of us in the family admire his courage in speaking publicly about very personal issues and fully support his decision to seek treatment," the Massachusetts Democrat said. "He has taken full responsibility for events that occurred."

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Full responsibility? Does that mean he'll soon be confessing to DWI and pleading guilty to that charge?

I thought not.

To plagarize another comment from WSJ's James Taranto ... you'd think this family would hire a driver or two! It's not like they can't afford 'em ....

Man, is that one screwed-up family, or what? Personally, I find it intriguing that people with so many resources seem to turn to the same crutches as the common folk: alcohol & drugs. What I can't figure out is, with all that money, power & prestige (well, at least in the eyes of some people) what on earth could be missing in their lives to cause them to become addicted to anything? They're like New England's royal family and life is too tough for them.

Just goes to prove, money and lots of it apparently doesn't do squat in peoples' attempts to obtain/attain happiness.

I don't have the yachts & planes & big houses these folks do, but I'd bet a month's salary, that I'm WAY happier than they are!

And then, you know, folks in Rhode Island will probably be able to figure that, the answer will be found on some episode of CSI. They'll discover that some sinister agents had projected intoxication on this guy with some magic laser beams or something, affecting his brain function, causing him to behave impaired and even think that he has an addiction problem!

The family fortune and power came from bootlegging booze, isn't it some how right that alcohol also seems to be the achilles heel?

If I had to stay and vote on matters on the floor of the House until midnight, I do not think I would need Ambien or anything else to put me to sleep. The nausea would be a different story.

quote:

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Man, is that one screwed-up family, or what? Personally, I find it intriguing that people with so many resources seem to turn to the same crutches as the common folk: alcohol & drugs.

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Why should it be any different than for the "common" folks? The Bush kids seem to have the same issues.

What really scares me isn't the fact that he drove while under the influence, but that he was performing his job.....making laws the rest of the country has to obey, creating policies for our nation to follow in its discourse and trade with other nations, critiqing and second guessing the war in Iraq, presumeably working with his party to select their next presidential candidate, and God only knows what else .... all while mentally incapacitated.

While I have no doubt that some of our elected reps haven't the intellect or integrity we might wish, I should hope that any deficiencies are merely biological or character flaws and not chemically enhanced (or de-enhanced, as it were).

We certainly wouldn't let a cop on the street armed with a pistol in an intoxicated or incapacitated state, why should we demand less of our lawmakers, especially when you consider the possible magnitude of their mistakes. A disoriented cop or drunk driver can harm only a relative few. How many can this guy hurt?

Alex, the bush kids were/are in college. Kennedy is in Congress. See, there should be a difference.

college. congress. you pay a lot of money to send folks to both places where they learn to avoid responsibility.