Patrick Kennedy: Personal Low, Career Peak

[babylonsister]

Personal Low, Career Peak
After Drug-Fueled Crash, Patrick Kennedy Turned Focus to Mental Health-Care Reform

By Vincent Bzdek
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 28, 2009; 12:21 AM


Political aides counseled Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to mention the incident when he was campaigning for reelection in 2006. "Don't bring it up," they insisted, as Kennedy recounts their reaction. "Everybody already knows about it." Talking about it only reminded Rhode Island voters of other Kennedy family misdeeds and misfortunes, they said.

The incident was the pre-dawn drive the congressman took straight into a security barrier outside of the Capitol on May 4, 2006. At about 2:45 a.m., the bleary-eyed scion of America's royal family staggered out of his green 1997 Ford Mustang convertible and informed police he was late for a vote.

The incident prompted another national rolling of the eyes over the foibles and addictions of the well-loved and well-ridiculed Kennedy family. When Kennedy held a news conference 36 hours later to announce that he was on his way to the Mayo Clinic to treat an addiction to prescription medication, fresh obituaries were written -- again -- for the once-glorious Camelot legacy.

But Kennedy's story didn't end at the wall. The congressman -- who had already disclosed a battle with bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, as well as treatment for cocaine use during his teenage years -- chose not to listen to the advice of his handlers on the campaign trail nearly three years ago. He may have sensed an opportunity, or decided to make the best of a personal tragedy or realized he had no option but honesty. Whatever the reason, he chose to reshape the incident as part of a broader story about the need for better insurance coverage for mental health issues, one of several issues he'd been championing for years. Now that pet concern had become a cause.

Last September, the Rhode Island Democrat -- together with colleagues including his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, former representative Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.), former senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and, crucially, his ailing father, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) -- pushed through a bill, signed by President Bush last October, that requires equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses by insurance companies.

In turning his crash into a crusade, Kennedy, who at age 41 is serving his eighth term, performed an act of political jujitsu that transformed one of the lowest moments of his life into his greatest political achievement. And he made a powerful argument for mental-health parity as a civil-rights issue for his generation, giving voice to the idea that the stigma surrounding alcoholism and mental illness is akin to the prejudice experienced once upon a time by gays, African Americans and Irish Catholics back in his uncle John's day.


more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042800059.html

[MADem]

1. Drug-Fueled Crash? There's ambiguity in that WAPO sub-headline.

They really should put the "prescription" part in there, so that we understand exactly who the drug "dealer" was, here.

He wasn't going to see Booboo on the corner, his pusher was a guy in a white coat with a MD degree. And the reason he got help is because he took his Ambien "before" he went straight to bed and ended up driving "without memory for the event" as the commercial says.

Interesting piece, nonetheless, with a good amount of depth, despite that little suggestion at the outset.

[babylonsister]

2. You're right, the insinuation is there that this was something other

than it actually was.

I guess I never knew, or forgot, Mr. Kennedy was bi-polar. Having a friend with that diagnosis and seeing what it did to him makes me appreciate what Mr. Kennedy has done even more.

[MADem]

3. Remember when he roughed up the sister at the airport?

He was pissed because of an altercation that dealt with an "oversized bag"....and that was BEFORE Nahn Wun Wun, IIRC.

http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/03-01/03-22-01/a01sr091.htm

The argument occurred at Los Angeles International Airport when the Rhode Island Democrat was rushing to catch a plane and Patton tried to stop him from putting an oversized bag through an X-ray machine. A security videotape of the argument showed the congressman shove Patton backward, jostling a metal detector archway. In the lawsuit, Mallory said Kennedy used "great force" and "intentionally lifted his hands and lunged at plaintiff and attempted to force his way past."

[babylonsister]

4. No, I don't recall hearing about that. That kind of attitude could also

be related to bipolar. I hope he's gotten a handle on that.

[MADem]

5. They reran the video in heavy rotation at the time of the incident.

It was plainly related to his medical condition. He was beyond furious because he was running late and the airport security woman wouldn't let hm shove a (huge) bag in the x-ray screener (it wouldn't have fit). He gave her a shove and then he smacks the x-ray thing that you walk through so hard that the thing does the shimmy on the tape.

I think he's gotten a handle on pretty much everything now. I'm betting he has to work on it, but it's part of his new, improved persona--so long as he stays busy and engaged, and has friends and family looking out for him, he'll probably be ok.

[DCKit]

6. I would like to think the WaPo is skating on the edge of defamation with that headline.

By the standards of the average person serving on a jury, "drug fueled" would indicate the use of any one of several dangerous, illegal drugs. In and of itself, the article would raise all kinds of warm and fuzzy feelings for liberals and progressives, but the negative connotation of drug abuse in association with the Kennedy name and the liberal cause of healthcare, and the FReepers will be losing their minds.

The fact that they also neglected to mention Ambien is indicative of their bias toward (D)s in general. Had this incident involved a Republic, they'd have included a crash course on the dangers of Ambien within the article with a fabulous, eye-catching graphic.

OK. So my question is: "Why is the WaPo going after this particular (D) at this particular time?"

[MADem]

7. I suspect the answer to your question is this: Because they're putzes. NT