Patrick Kennedy Will Not Run For Senate

WASHINGTON - Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-R.I., on Wednesday ruled out a run for the Senate in 2006, saying he could better serve his constituents by staying in the House and serving on the Appropriations Committee.

Kennedy has been in Boston caring for his mother, Joan Kennedy, who was hospitalized with a concussion and a broken shoulder after a passer-by found her lying in a street Tuesday.

In a statement, Kennedy did not cite family responsibilities as a reason for his decision, but he and his brother and sister recently took temporary guardianship of his mother to ensure she receives treatment for her alcoholism. Patrick Kennedy was seeking to become her permanent legal guardian.

"I am grateful for the support and encouragement I have received to run for the Senate," he said. "But over the past few days, I have determined that I can make the greatest difference in the lives of Rhode Island families by remaining on the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives and fighting for their priorities." The committee controls about a third of the nearly $2.6 trillion federal budget.

Kennedy had been encouraged to run for the Senate against Republican incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record), after Rhode Island's other Democratic congressman, Jim Langevin, decided not to seek the Senate seat.

Kennedy, who is in his sixth term, said he was humbled by the pressure to run, but ultimately decided he should stay on the powerful Appropriations panel, where he has been able to secure funding for state projects. He also said he wants to continue his work on health issues, including mental health programs.

Kennedy's mother, the former wife of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), D-Mass., was taken to Tufts New England Medical Center around 3 a.m. Tuesday.

"I would also like to thank everyone for their outpouring of support for my mother," Patrick Kennedy wrote. "My family means everything to me and I would appreciate you respecting my family's privacy at this time."

Joan Kennedy Recuperates From Concussion
Joan Kennedy, Ex-Wife of Mass. Sen. Edward Kennedy, Recuperates From Concussion, Broken Shoulder
The Associated Press
Mar. 30, 2005 - Joan Kennedy, the former wife of Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, is in the hospital recuperating from a concussion and a broken shoulder after a passer-by found her lying in a street, according to her son.

Kennedy, 68, was taken to Tufts New England Medical Center about 3 a.m. Tuesday, said Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.

"We're indebted to some anonymous pedestrian who found her and picked her up and got her help," Patrick Kennedy told the Boston Herald for its Wednesday editions.

Details of exactly what happened and how she ended up in the street were unclear. There was no police report on the incident. Joan Kennedy, who divides her time between Cape Cod and a Boston condominium, has struggled with alcoholism. She spent time in a number of rehabilitation programs following arrests for drunken driving.

The senator said Wednesday that he's proud of his children for their loyalty to his ex-wife.

"This has been a sad time," he said. "We're hoping for the best."

The couple had three children together Kara Kennedy Allen, 45, Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., 44, and Patrick Kennedy, 37 before divorcing in 1982.

The children recently took temporary guardianship of their mother to ensure she receives treatment for her alcoholism. Patrick Kennedy is seeking to become her permanent legal guardian.

Joan Kennedy worked as an advocate for the mentally retarded and for cancer research and was a supporter of the Pine Street Inn, a Boston-based homeless shelter, and Children's Hospital.

I guess Secretary of State Brown is now the RAT frontrunner. But even he could beat Chafee if Chafee stays a Republican.

As I've said before, I don’t see why Republicans should put any effort into reelecting Lincoln Chafee. Chafee votes with the Democrats on just about every vote that counts, and he cannot be counted upon to support Bush’s nominees or even to stay a Republican in the future—if the Senate was 50-50, he would have almost certainly pulled a Jeffords, as he has threatened to do in the past. And with 54 other Republicans in the Senate, the R next to Chafee’s name doesn’t mean squat.

A better solution might be to kick Chafee off of a sub-committee chairmanship or something so that he makes it official and finally leaves the GOP. I assume that the Democrats would discourage Brown and other candidates from running in the Democrat primary against someone who recently switched parties in order not to discourage other RINOs from switching, and I think that a Republican Senate candidate with decent name ID would have a good chance of defeating Lincoln Chafee in a general election, especially one in which Governor Carcieri is running for reelection.

Chafee sits in the following committees:

1. Foreign Relations (3rd of 10 Republicans and Chairman of the Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Subcommittee)

2. Environment and Public Works (5th of 10 Republicans, and Chairman of the Superfund and Waste Management Subcommittee)

3. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (6th of 9 Republicans)

See: http://www.senate.gov/general/committee_assignments/assignments.htm

I’m certain that the GOP would be able to keep its current 2-seat advantage in these committees even if the number of GOP Senators dropped from 55 to 54. In fact, I believe that this could be accomplished by keeping the same number of Republicans and Democrats in the committee, which, given the fact that Chafee has been an imposter on the GOP side, would mean that the GOP would have a net gain of 2 Republicans on those committees (one fewer de facto Democrat and one more real Republican). If the size of the committees was kept the same but Chafee became a Democrat member of the committees, it would benefit the GOP particularly in the Foreign Relations Committee and the Environment and Public Works Committee, in which Chafee has seniority and would certainly be given a spot by the Democrats. The lowest-ranking Democrat—in fact, the only first-year Democrat—in each of those committees is one Barack Obama. The Democrats won’t want to drop their “rising star” Obama from those two committees, but none of the other Democrats with more seniority will give up without a fight. Republicans could just sit back and enjoy the show.

But if, instead, the Democrats insisted on each of those committees adding 2 members with the GOP still having a 2-vote advantage (which could happen, since it would mean that the GOP would have closer to 54% of the members of those committees as opposed to a bit over 55%), then the GOP would still have a pickup of two real Republicans. Chafee would join the other Democrats on the committee, but 2 real Republicans would be added to the committee. Obama would stay put, but we would have much stronger control of the agenda of the committees than we currently do.

As for the 2006 election, as a Republican, I’d rather have a Republican (such as Laffey, or even Almond or Machtley) face Chafee in the general election than face Brown or whomever in the general election, since I think that Chafee, even if he ran as a Democrat, would lose to a good Republican candidate. *Somebody* has to be willing to run against Judas Chafee if he finally switched to the Democrats. And in the meantime, we’d have some truth-in-labeling with Chafee as a Democrat and we’d be able to add two net real Republicans to all of the committees in which he sits.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.