And another Kennedy in the headlines

I'm sure you've by now all heard about Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D, RI) and his lovely midnight drive into a pole at the capitol. He told the officer who watched him almost sideswipe another police car before stopping his car the old-fashioned way, that he was "headed to the Capitol to make a vote." It was 3AM.

He originally said that the accident was caused by Ambien, a sleeping pill he'd taken, which may have interacted with some other medication he was on, both of which he had prescriptions for. Many people have been asking why he decided to go out driving after taking a sleeping pill, particularly one as heavy duty as Ambien, which requires a full 8 hours of sleep.

But I guess it's possible that he was sleep-driving, right? I mean I've known some people to do some weird shit while they were sleeping, including trying to pee in various receptacles that were not actually toilets (the best was a friend trying to pee in his roommate's dirty landry hamper while said roommate watched, but that's the topic of another post. On another blog). Ahem, and he said that he didn't have any recollection of the evening after going to bed. So, it is possible that it was all a big mix-up...

So why is he now taking a trip to the Mayo clinic to be de-drugged and rehabilitated? I mean, we could believe him and his story on its merits, if we wanted to. Unfortunately, the officer who pulled him over did not bother to do any sobriety tests, so we'll never know if he was just sloshed out of his mind (which would explain both the erratic driving and the black out) or if he really was asleep while driving.

As he is a Kennedy, and an admitted drug addict, whose already made two trips to the Mayo clinic, I'm sure the original story he told was a little bit fudged, but who knows. What's really interesting is the fact that he's made no plans to resign and rejected the idea that he might saying, "I need to stay in the fight." Well, sure you do, and I'm sure the lovely people of Rhode Island will be happy to re-elect you, just try not to kill any tourists the next time you take the mustang out, alright?