Decision ‘08

Anybody Believe This Story?

Going to vote at 2:45 a.m. - disoriented from prescription medications?

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy crashed his car into a security barrier near the Capitol early yesterday, and officers at the scene suspected that he might have been intoxicated, a police union official said.

Kennedy (D-R.I.) issued a statement late last night — his second in several hours — saying he had been disoriented after taking prescription drugs: Phenergan for gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the stomach and intestines, and Ambien, a sleeping medication.

“Following the last series of votes on Wednesday evening, I returned to my home on Capitol Hill and took the prescribed amount” of the two medications, the 38-year-old congressman said.

“Sometime around 2:45 a.m., I drove the few blocks to the Capitol Complex believing I needed to vote,” the statement continued. “Apparently, I was disoriented from the medication. . . . At no time before the incident did I consume any alcohol.”

Now, a question for you: if you or I crashed into a security barrier near the Capitol in an apparent state of intoxication, think maybe we might go to jail?

I’m just asking…of course, I don’t possess that famous Kennedy charm($$), and I doubt you do, either…

Eric has a related query…

UPDATE 9:25 a.m.: Uh-oh, bad news for Pat - a waitress says he was drinking:

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy insisted yesterday that he had consumed “no alcohol” before he slammed his Mustang convertible into a concrete barrier near his office, but 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.

4 Responses to “Anybody Believe This Story?”

1 dmac Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 9:55 am
Maybe he’s still feeling the effects of that hammer to his mouth recently - or perhaps he’s reprising the drunk/crashing of his yacht not too long ago.

Did you look at the note he scrawled for the police? Looks like the scribble of a 5 - year old; or maybe some guy who’s four sheets to the wind (no yachting pun intended).
2 megapotamus Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Yeah, well I’m pretty sure you could describe my handwriting like that on my best day but it does seem quite obvious that this Kennedy got the Kennedy treatment. In another, more genteel age, all would have looked away. Is there any doubt this would be buried by now if there were no Fox or blogs or the other modern alternates to the Friends of the DNC? That’s serious progress and just beginning.
3 Gwedd Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Comrades,

Anyone else here realize how much of a validation Patches Kennedy just gave to Cynthia McKinney’s complaints about a “Washington double standard”?

Respects,

Gwedd
4 Fred Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 11:45 am
It’s all the fault of the sleeping pill he took before driving home at 3:00 AM?