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May 7, 2006
Notes from Ferdy - Patrick Kennedy Crashes Without Burning
There has been a lot of chatter about Patrick Kennedy's recent car crash. Nose on Your Face compares Patrick's problem to his father's disastrous fall off the bridge at Chappaquidick, while Wizbang compares Kennedy's drug problem to Rush Limbaugh's.
A part of me is bothered by the fact that a portion of Rhode Island consistently chooses to be represented by a drug addict. But in fact it doesn't really matter. Patrick is not one of the few people in the House who are required to make public pronouncements or conduct televised hearings. Instead, he helps raise money for other Democrats. While you and I might have qualms about putting an alcoholic in a position where he's required to drink socially, the DNC has no reason to argue with the results.
In fact, the people of Rhode Island have no reason for complaint, either. If you take a peek at the Congressional Database, you will see that there were literally thousands of bills before the House in 2005, and the bills relating to appropriations and spending are over 1000 pages each. The others generally refer to sections of existing laws that are themselves hundreds of pages long. A Congressman cannot possibly juggle all that information in his head while he's wandering around soliciting votes and making compromises, so Rep. Kennedy is completely at the mercy of his staff. In fact, given that the bills on which Mr. Kennedy votes are Federal laws-- we are all completely at the mercy of his staff.
It gets worse.
During the last election, Republicans made hay out of John Kerry's voting record on defense, but in all probability Kerry had only a vague idea what was in most of those bills. Indeed, regarding the bill behind the infamous "I voted for it before I voted against it" line, Kerry's change of support had to do with a tax provision rather than the spending portion of the bill itself.
This is why it's terrible news for our whole form of government that Patrick Kennedy can fulfill his assigned duties even though he's too stoned to drive a car: our Representatives are so removed from the process of making law that it is no longer possible to judge them by their voting records.
Kerry couldn't defend himself because he doesn't see this as a problem. But conservatives cannot afford that luxury. Republican control of the White House and Congress has not stopped government's runaway growth. This is because even the small bills have hidden spending in them. Take, for example, the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006. This bill is only twelve pages long, and the first four pages are nothing but marketing, so there's only a small amount of actual law involved. Hidden in section 6 is a single sentence which allows the government to foot the bill for any studies commissioned in the course of a successful attempt to prove racially-biased voter intimidation. Democrats have been trying to hang this voter intimidation thing on the Republicans since the 2000 election, and if they succeed then thanks to the Voting Rights bill the taxpayers would foot the bill for the entire witch hunt.
Consider now what would happen if Paul Zogby collects money under the provisions of section 6 and it turns out that back in 2004 Zogby donated money to Denny Hastert. Hastert is one of the sponsors of the Voting Rights bill, so a case could be made that Hastert delivered service in exchange for a bribe, even though Hastert had no idea of the connection.
So I don't really care whether Patrick Kennedy goes to jail, gets off scot free, or never leaves rehab. The problem is not that the Kennedy may not know what he's doing; the problem is that his mental state has nothing to do with his job performance.
That's a serious design flaw in the way our government works.
Respectfully submitted,
Ferdinand T. Cat
# At Sun 1:20 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (3) | More Notes from Ferdy
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» Kennedy: battling depression, alcoholism, bi-polar disorder, cocaine, pain-killers...but who could be better for R.I.? from Conservative Blog Therapy
Why is being a Kennedy an automatic ticket to public office? I don't get it.
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Tracked on May 11, 2006 10:24 PM
Comments
Jazzycat
Posted by: Jazzy Cat at May 7, 2006 1:26 PM
I take a prescription drug too. I also am a sleepwalker from this drug (not Ambien). You do strange things when in that altered state. Patrick Kennedy had been in an accident 3 weeks earlier in a parking lot in RI. Getting into a car and thinking it's daylight and that he had to vote, is a pretty scary thing. I don't think alcohol does this. I can see someone falling asleep at the wheel after drinking or getting into a crash. But not this. This condition is serious and I think Patrick should see a neurologist. He has no memory of the incident. What he did is a sleepwalker's nightmare. I have an alarm at my front door that would wake me if I tried to walk out while sleeping. It would wake up the dead.
Get off Kennedy's back.
Posted by: Witness at July 23, 2006 5:52 PM
You're requiring too many assumptions.
Posted by: Ferdy ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.conservativecat.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 24, 2006 2:02 AM
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