Driving While A Kennedy

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So while away at work I hear that Paddy Kennedy has decided to pull on America’s heartstrings by using the “I’ve got a problem” defense:

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday that he will enter a rehabilitation program after crashing his car on Capitol Hill a day earlier.

CNN obtained a statement from a congressional source later Friday in which Capitol Hill Police said an initial probe showed supervisors did not handle the accident properly at the scene.

“I know that I need help,” the Rhode Island Democrat said at an afternoon press conference, detailing what he called a long-term struggle with depression and addiction.

“I struggle every day with this disease, as do millions of Americans,” Kennedy said.

Well, isn’t that special. Of course it worked with the biased MSM: (CNN’s Dana Bash)

BASH: … context about the congressman and his past, and just, basically, what he is dealing with and what he has been grappling with, he says, often, his whole life, which is, first of all, an addiction, as I mentioned, to drugs, as he was?when he was a young man, but also depression.

He has?is very open about the fact that he has had chronic depression. He has also had health issues. And all of that has meant that he has had to take a series of prescription drugs for various things. The people around him talk about the fact that prescription drugs are a very real thing in his life.

So, he is certainly somebody who has dealt with that before and has dealt with that in the past, and, obviously, is dealing with that at this particular time. So, this is something that perhaps is not unexpected for him.

He?s also somebody who has a mother, who, as?

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

BASH: … we know?who is an alcoholic, and has talked about that openly. And that is something that as we know, is a genetic thing.

So, this is something that certainly is surprising, in that he?s going to make this announcement. But when you think about even just the?

My question is, where was this sympathy for Rush Limbaugh after it was exposed that he was addicted to pain killers. Paddy could of killed someone driving while impaired and he gets sympathy. Rush used these drugs at home. So what did Rush get?

For nearly three years we witnessed the persecution of Rush Limbaugh, who became addicted to painkillers resulting from back and neck problems. We witnessed leaks by prosecutors who spread lies about him being involved in money laundering, drug rings, and doctor shopping. But the media happily repeated them. Some mocked him.

Rush got help. He has been clean for years. And in most cases, when someone becomes addicted to prescription drugs for the first time, the matter is eventually dropped. Most jurisdictions have set up drug courts for this very purpose. But that didn’t stop the state prosecutor in Palm Beach County from spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars pursuing Rush.

Early on, prosecutors claimed they had evidence of over ten felonies. They demanded that Rush plead guilty to some felony?any felony. He refused, always insisting on his innocence. So, they leaked more lies to the media, hoping to intimidate him. They seized his medical records. They gave his medical records to the media. The media took those records and turned them into graphics for television. Reporters and commentators were studying his prescriptions, discussing both the kinds and amount of medicine he had taken. They were beside themselves with glee. Newsweek, AP and the Palm Beach Post, Rush’s local paper, were especially vicious, serving as lap-dogs for the prosecutors.

In court, Rush fought these people every step of the way?all the way to the Florida Supreme Court. He spent millions of dollars defending himself?despite the fact that he had been a first-time abuser, went to rehab, and was clean. And then last October, the lead prosecutor sauntered into court and in response to questioning told the judge?we have no evidence that Rush Limbaugh has committed any crime! None.

I mean how more transparent can the bias be here? No only did Paddy drive while impaired which could of resulted in a tragic accident, but then he sought and gained preferential treatment by the Capitol Police. He was so impaired that he doesn’t remember getting out of bed:

Kennedy, 39, said he had no recollection of the events surrounding the crash into a barricade on Capitol Hill early Thursday morning.

But was aware enough to invoke the Constitutional clause whereby he cannot be detained. Add to this the simple fact that he remembers not asking for preferential treatment:

Kennedy denies asking for special treatment. When he left his office at 10 p.m. Thursday night, he said, “I never asked for any preferential treatment.” Asked whether he received it, he said “that’s up for the police to decide.”

AND the officers on the scene smelled alcohol:

Louis P. Cannon, president of the Washington chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, who was not on the scene, said the congressman had appeared intoxicated when he crashed his car into a barrier on Capitol Hill.

“The officers on the scene, it is my understanding, smelled alcohol. And based on his demeanor and their experience, believed him to be intoxicated,” Cannon told Chen.

AND there is supposed to be a witness who saw him drink alcohol the night he said he didn’t consume any:

[…]but a hostess at a popular Capitol Hill watering hole told the Herald she saw him drinking in the hours before the crash.

?He was drinking a little bit,? said the woman, who works at the Hawk & Dove and would not give her name.

[…]A bartender at the Tune Inn, which is next to the Hawk & Dove, also said Kennedy was spotted in the Hawk & Dove Wednesday.

Add all this up and you get a stinking pile of crapola.

It’s obvious he got preferential treatment by someone inside the Capitol Police who interceded on his behalf:

Cannon also says officers at the scene were instructed by an official “above the rank of patrolman” to take Kennedy home.

Which if true should send up warning signals all around. I mean people in the DC area can be arrested for a BA of .01! Yes, not the .08 that is used by almost every other state but .01 which would be one glass of wine at dinner:

Debra Bolton had a glass of red wine with dinner. That’s what she told the police officer who pulled her over. That’s what the Intoxilyzer 5000 breath test indicated — .03, comfortably below the legal limit. She had been pulled over in Georgetown about 12:30 a.m. for driving without headlights. She apologized and explained that the parking attendant must have turned off her vehicle’s automatic-light feature.

Bolton thought she might get a ticket. Instead, she was handcuffed, searched, arrested, put in a jail cell until 4:30 a.m. and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Bolton, 45, an energy lawyer and single mother of two who lives in Alexandria, had just run into a little-known piece of D.C. law: In the District, a driver can be arrested with as little as .01 blood-alcohol content.

As D.C. police officer Dennis Fair, who arrested Bolton on May 15, put it in an interview recently: “If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C. We have zero tolerance. . . . Anything above .01, we can arrest.” Neither the police department nor the attorney general’s office keeps detailed records of how many people with low blood alcohol levels are arrested. But last year, according to police records, 321 people were arrested for driving under the influence with blood alcohol levels below the legal limit of .08. In 2003, 409 people were arrested. . . .

But this Kennedy gets a ride home where he gets to hash up a heart tugging story to make the country feel sorry for him.

So Rush abused prescription drugs, did not drive a vehicle while impaired, but spent 3 years in court and spent over a million dollars representing himself while this jackass can drive while impaired and get sympathy from all corners.

Un-Freakin-Believable.

Oh, btw….The Smoking Gun has the police report and Slobakan’s Site O’ Schtuff has a highlighted segment of it:

Other’s Blogging:


So Rush abused prescription drugs, did not drive a vehicle while impaired, but spent 3 years in court and spent over a million dollars representing himself while this jackass can drive while impaired and get sympathy from all corners.

Un-Freakin-Believable.

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Curt, love ya man. Long team reader, first time commenter.

2 quickie questions… (1) re differential treatment though… couldn’t Rush sue the DAs who persecuted him for malicious prosecution? Would love to see it if he did.

Also… (2) I discovered your blog at the same time I discovered the Right-Thinking from the Left Coast, and right or wrong, tend to think of you both as something of a pair of SoCal conservative blogs that just seem to go together. Would love to know what you think of RTLC.

Thanks…

STEVE in Lakewood, California

Wordsmith- In all the blogs that I have read on the subject you are the only person that brought up a relevant comparison. 2 elected officials Kennedy vs Bush. (I am bowing to you)

IMO- Rush is irrelevant. He is a well paid radio host, not an elected official.