These questions and others stem from an incident at 0245 hours on Thursday, May 4th, where Kennedy was spotted driving in an erratic fashion by US Capitol Police. As they tried to stop him, he slammed into a security barrier. By police accounts, Kennedy exited the car smelling of alcoholic beverages, with red, watery eyes and slurred speech. He was also reportedly staggering and disoriented but he still claimed to be going into Congress to vote. Officers on the scene wanted to treat Kennedy as they would any other citizen and administer field sobriety tests but they were stopped by supervisors who responded to the scene and sent them away. Those supervisors then drove Kennedy to his home without arresting him or administering any sort of sobriety tests.
Now this angers me because there's no way that I or any of you readers would ever get that sort of treatment if we crashed our car and exhibited all the signs and symptoms of drunk driving. It also angered the officers on scene enough to make them file a complaint with their union regarding the supervisor interference and that's how this affair made the news the next day.
When it bacame public knowledge, Kennedy immediately issued a statement claiming that he had not been drinking that night. However this was contradicted a few hours later by a waitress at the Hawk and Dove, a local bar on Capitol Hill. She said that Kennedy had been in the bar that night and that he had been drinking.
Kennedy's next excuse was that he'd taken Ambien--a sleep aid--and Phenergan, and that the two drugs had made him disoriented. However that doesn't explain away the watery red eyes or the odor of alcoholic beverages that the Capitol Police documents. Those things come from one source only--alcohol.
All I can see here frankly is more proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Daddy Ted Kennedy drives off a bridge at Chappaquiddick and a girl dies while he runs home to hide. By the time he turns himself in to police, it's too late for any alcohol testing. And now Patrick crashes his car and goes home, coming out a day later and only then promising to cooperate with any investigations.However it's also too late for alcohol testing. How convenient.
My thought is that if I had been in his shoes--and if I honestly had not been drinking--I'd have demanded a breathalyzer test immediately just to dispel all doubt and prove to the world that there was no alcohol in my system. But now we'll never know for sure either way and all we can do is guess and use his past record to gauge his veracity.
So let's look at that past record.
He's had problems in the past with both alcohol and drug abuse and he's been to rehab for these problems. He's also admitting to bipolar disorder and he's undergone treatment for that as well. But he still acts badly and he has a history that includes striking an airline security guard in March of 2000 in Los Angeles and an accusation of domestic abuse by a girlfriend who summoned the Coast Guard to rescue her from Kennedy's yacht.
Look, I'm not unsympathetic to the guy's problems. I doubt that there are many people in America who are laughing about his problems and I think it's safe to say that most people can find at least some pity for the guy. But the fact remains that his problems make him a liability in government and America can't afford to have someone that erratic and irresponsible making decisions that affect all of us. I think it's time for him to step down and just go live in the familiy's millions and leave running the country to someone more stable and better equipped to handle the pressure that goes with the job.
And if he won't step down, the voters of Rhode Island need to step up and replace him for the good of that state and the nation.
Drinks at the Hawk & Dove: $40
Phenergan & Ambien: $75
Crashing your Mustang convertible while intoxicated: $4,000
Being driven home by Capitol Police instead of arrested: PRICELESS
And courtesy of the Smoking Gun, here's the actual POLICE REPORT
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