Chris At Home

Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island nearly hit a police car, then crashed his car into a barrier and got a free ride home, no breathalyzer needed.

He says he was on his way to a vote, at 2:45am. Was he invoking his constitutional shield? Read the police report.

He wasn't drunk, he was on doctor-prescribed medication! Doesn't that count as driving while impaired? It does in most states.

He's going to rehab for drug addiction.

A commenter at the Daily Kos wants his head, and a resignation.

Edward Kennedy comments.

That is why I believe we have reached the point where we must take a deep breath and immediately depart the Oldsmobile. We must seek through the watery darkness and release the belt latch of madness that has kept us here, and reach out for a sane and honorable window crank.

Obviously there will be passengers in the Oldsmobile who do not want us to leave, and will likely try to grasp and grab at our feet as we depart. While we wish them success, it is critical that these passengers quickly learn independence and self-determination. The most effective way to teach them is through example, and with a vigorous kick-off. Let us hope they will cherish our shoes as a lasting legacy of our commitment to liberty.

Update from Tim Blair:

Stupid Patrick Kennedy. He shouldn’t have made those claims about Phenergan or Ambien or whatever they’re calling vodka these days. Instead, he should have told the police: “I am cursed. This is no fault of mine; it’s a family curse, and as such I am powerless to anything about it.”

Check out the URL...Blair is gets in another dig.

Update: the abuse piles up.

Patrick Kennedy, son of famed Oldsmobile yachtsman Ted, and grandson of Prohibition bootlegger Joe, used the alibi that it wasn’t alcohol that caused him to crash his car at 2:45 AM Thursday morning, it was drugs.

That’s a pathetic excuse, even by Kennedy family standards.

But it turns out that even that ignoble defense fell apart, as a D.C-area bar employee reports that she saw him drinking in the bar shortly before the crash, and the Capitol Police listed him as being under the influence of alcohol in their traffic report.

While some disingenuously try to play it off as just an accidental drug interaction issue—oh, he was just sleep-driving, explains away Talk Left—as if that is a normal, everyday occurrence like sneezing—the very real fact is that Kennedy was a threat to others when he is behind the wheel. This was his second suspicious wreck in just two weeks. Kennedy’s penmanship in the earlier accident report was so discombobulated that it is very hard to believe that he wasn’t under the influence then, as well.

Patrick Kennedy now states will be entering a rehabilitation program at the Mayo Clinic for an addiction to prescription drugs. He states that he has "no recollection" of the events of Late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, and yet, he provided a full explanation of the wreck and a denial that he was drinking, despite eyewitness testimony to the contrary, and then provides a description of the police’s treatment of him.

Update: The press excuses Patrick.