A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and when it does, it makes quite a noise. Early yesterday morning Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island, son of Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, crashed his car near the Capitol, according to the Drudge Report:
Roll Call reports: According to a letter sent by Officer Greg Baird, acting chairman of the USCP FOP [Capitol policemen's union], the wreck took place at approximately 2:45 a.m. Thursday when [Rep.] 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."
The security barricade at First and C streets Southeast could not be reached for comment.
The Los Angeles Times reports PJK issued a statement--though we couldn't find it on his Web site--in which he "denied . . . that he had been drinking" but acknowledged driving under the influence of prescription drugs:
In a second, longer statement issued late Thursday, Kennedy, 38, said he had seen Congress' attending physician two days before and had been prescribed Phenergan to treat gastroenteritis. The drug, which is used to control nausea, may cause "considerable drowsiness," according to Physicians' Desk Reference.
After a series of votes Wednesday evening, Kennedy said, he took prescribed doses of Phenergan and Ambien, a drug he said the Capitol physician had given him some time ago for occasional sleeplessness.
"Apparently I was disoriented from the medication," he said, repeating his earlier statement that "at no time before the incident did I use any alcohol."
Slate dubs it "Nappaquiddick." Kennedy's claim not to have tippled is in dispute, however, according to the Boston Herald:
A hostess at a popular Capitol Hill watering hole told the Herald she saw him drinking in the hours before the crash.
"He was drinking a little bit," said the woman, who works at the Hawk & Dove and would not give her name.
Leaving his office late last night, Kennedy refused to say whether he'd been to the Hawk & Dove the night before.
We may never know who's telling the truth, for, as the L.A. Times reports:
Baird [the police union head] wrote that the officers were not permitted to perform basic field sobriety tests and that the watch commander on duty "ordered all of the patrol division units to leave the scene."
Officers then drove Kennedy home, the congressman said in his second statement. "At no time did I ask for any special consideration," he added. "I simply complied with what the officers asked me to do."
It seems highly unlikely, however, that if you or I drove a car into a Capitol barricade, the Capitol Police would respond by chauffeuring us home. The Times notes that this is not an isolated incident:
Kennedy's past includes several troubling episodes, starting with his treatment in 1986 for cocaine use. More recently, a charter company accused him of causing $28,000 in damage to a rented yacht in 2000. That same year, he acknowledged that he was "on a lot of different medications for, among other things, depression," and was accused of shoving an airport security guard at Los Angeles International Airport when she tried to make him check his bag.
He was in a traffic incident last month in his home district, according to Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, who reported that the mishap occurred as Kennedy was hurrying into the parking lot of a pharmacy in Portsmouth, R.I.
PJK is 38, a year older than his father was when he drove Mary Jo Kopechne to her grave. Since then, Massachusetts voters have returned the elder Kennedy to the Senate six times. If the weird hypnotic power the Kennedys wield against Massachusetts voters extends south to Rhode Island, Patrick Kennedy may have a long political career ahead of him.
Still, you have to wonder why these people don't just hire a driver. Surely they can afford it.
We Guess Someone Followed This Advice
"Drinking Problem? Try Drugs"--headline, Wired News, April 19
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