Patrick Kennedy

Roll Call reports (subscription) today that an investigation headed up by the acting chief of the Capitol Police has concluded that the car crash involving Patrick Kennedy last week was "a symptom of a broader problem of 'political policing' being encouraged by agency brass."

From Roll Call:

Union officials are particularly upset that the officer who responded to Kennedy's accident was not allowed to complete his investigation at the scene but was instead ordered to leave the scene while Kennedy was given a ride home by department officials. While Kennedy blamed his accident on the interaction between two medications he had been prescribed, the traffic report filed from the incident listed alcohol as a factor in the crash.

Philip Weiss has an interesting take on Kennedy over on his new blog, MondoWeiss.

—Nicole Brydson

I don't care whether it was Ambien or alcohol; I wonder whether Patrick Kennedy isn't—unconsciously—seeking a way out of politics with his latest run-in with the law. Kennedy last went into rehab just five months ago, now he's going back. The Almanac of American Politics reports that he had several "imbroglios" in recent years, including shoving an airport security guard in 2000 and, in 2003, saying, "I haven't worked a [expletive] day in my life," as a way of attacking Bush's tax cuts by citing his own privileged background.

Kennedy lacks his father's political temperament, let alone his charisma. His achievements have been middling (again, per the Almanac), including supporting the Iraq war and then accusing the administration of deceiving him. And, maybe more revealing, twice ducking a chance to run for Senate. He was obviously pushed into politics by family pressure, internalized or otherwise; he got in at age 21, and who doesn't question career choices made at that age?

It's interesting to consider that he had his crackup at the Capitol. Some hostility there toward symbols of authority? By leaving the place for good, he would do a real favor to his under-served constituents, and probably himself too.