Congressman Patrick Kennedy called a press conference to announce his entry into a rehabilitation center for drug addiction. I hope he gets better. I also hope he resigns. People who are addicted to drugs and mentally ill are poor choices for public office.

At this afternoon's press event, Kennedy lauded himself for his "openness" and announced that he was "taking full responsibility" for an "incident" on Wednesday night. What "incident"? "I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by the police, or being cited for three driving infractions," Kennedy claims. Kennedy maintains a "lack of knowledge of the accident that evening." He refused to take questions from the media. What "openness"? What "responsibility"?

Patrick Kennedy is taking a page out of the playbook of Jimmy Swaggart, Bill Clinton, Dan White, and yes, his father (Remember: "When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police"?). Pat Kennedy postures as not the beneficiary of favorable treatment, but rather a victim. "I struggle every day with this disease," the representative claimed. A disease that makes you lie? A disease that makes you obstruct justice?

Pat Kennedy didn't kill anyone. He broke a law--driving under the influence--that lots of people break. But he did something few people suspected of drunk driving get to do: pull rank, lie with impunity, and get the police to drive him home. Pat Kennedy wasn't rushing to a vote. The Rhode Island congressman was, according to witnesses, drinking in bars. Lying to the police is serious. Lying to the people who elected you is too. Pat Kennedy is a rogue not a victim. And during an election cycle when so many of the rogues have been Republicans, Pat Kennedy the rogue, Cynthia McKinney the rogue, and William Jefferson the rogue do not come at an opportune time for the Democrats. Democrats wanted to debilitate Republicans, not rehabilitate themselves. But before they can do the former, they will have to do the latter.

Pat Kennedy needs help, political and personal. Whether retreating to a rehabilitation center is another lame way of avoiding responsibility for his actions Thursday morning, or, like his less-publicized trips to rehabilitation centers in the past, an attempt to take responsibility and get his life together, one can only speculate. I'm speculating a little bit of both.

I wonder if he's ever "sleep-voted"?

But what if he really doesn't remember? It's not that implausible. There's a prescription sleep drug known to cause sleep-walking, sleep-drinking, and sleep-driving. People will even cook and eat food, and do other every-day activities in their sleep. And they won't remember afterwards.

I immediately thought of Ambien when I heard he was claiming not to remember. And now I read that he claims to have used Ambien. Being an addict, it shouldn't be that hard to believe he would overdose on Ambien or mix it with other drugs.

The only people sicker and more disoriented than Patches are the voters in his district that keep re-electing the rapscallion.

What about the Mass. morons who keep re-electing his load of a father?

Yeah, he took responsibility for this actions in the true Kennedy fashion: onlt because he did something stupid and careless and got caught.

This guy has been in and out of rehab numerous times and this is just the most recent episode. And the reason he doesn't remember getting out of bed is that he never went to bed in the first place.

Maybe the Kennedy curse isn't a curse at all. Maybe it's just a bunch of rich privileged elitists acting badly and not fessing up to the fact that they have little or no character.