Three changes down; one to go.
Posted on 02/12/2010 8:06:52 AM PST by raccoonradio
U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy decided to abandon public office to focus on his personal life and family after watching his father die surrounded by loved ones, the 16-year congressman said in a wide-ranging magazine interview.
Kennedy, who announced his decision not to seek re-election in a two-minute video clip, told Rhode Island Monthly he decided to let go of his House seat at Christmas after spending the fall reflecting on the death of U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
“It’s pretty simple in this respect: I went through something that caused me a great deal of soul searching and self-reflection,” Kennedy said. “Right now, a personal life is of greater value. Emotional connections that are real and loving and personal just trump everything else.”
Kennedy appears on the cover of the magazine’s March edition. The story’s author, Mark Arsenault, this morning told WPRO-AM host John DiPietro he believes Kennedy wants to have a family.
“That certainly goes into his thinking. He stood around his father’s death bed and there were a lot of people there,” Arsenault said. “He’s 42 years old and never been married and I think at some point he would like to have a family.”
In the interview, Kennedy said he became closer to his brother, Ted Jr., and sister, Kara, during his father’s dying days. He also said he could not imagine dying alone.
“I can’t imagine if I had a year to live and I didn’t have kids. All the legislative accomplishments in the world wouldn’t matter,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy also described the time he spent with his father after his brain cancer diagnosis in May 2008.
“I’ll never forget what he said to me (in late summer, 2008.) He said, ‘Can you stay at the house with me and just clear your schedule,’ ” Kennedy said. “We had a couple of weeks. I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. His just asking me to be there was the greatest gift he ever gave me in his life.”
Kennedy told the magazine he is not sure what’s next for him, but he wants to model the next chapter of his life after his late aunt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics. Shriver died shortly before her younger brother, Ted, last August.
“Service is in my future. I know it as fact that service is an essential part to maintaining your sobriety,” he said.
Kennedy added: “There’s a hole in the soul that we all try to fill, sometimes with the wrong things, like booze or drugs. Society would tell us to fill it with consumerism. But its only really filled through love and service, by serving a high purpose. By doing God’s will.”
He would not have been reelected. Did he forget to mention that?
Uh, Patrick, we don’t care what excuse you’re offering up for quitting. Just QUIT already!
as Howie has pointed out a triple crime: she was black,
female, and elderly I believe. Care to guess the media reaction had Patches been a Republican?
The deluded hurtful fantasy known as “Camelot” is finally dead folks.
What a pant load.
His polling sobered him up.
Me, too. I think it will be a very good fit.
>>because it was expected
the plan was that Joseph Kennedy II (the one killed in the war) would become President, Jack Kennedy sen. from Mass.,
and Ted would have become sen. from R.I.
Interestingly, I also calculated a 53.24% chance that Kennedy will wreck his car in an alcohol or drug induced stupor.
...and, numbers don't lie.
>>I wish him a long life in the private sector.
You misspelled “rehab”.
May he use a healthy chunk of whatever filthy money he inherits to form a sobriety charity, and spend the rest of his life trying to turn around the boatloads of drunken Kennedy disasters.
Isn’t Joe Kennedy still in politics, or is he just a shill for Venezuelan oil?
Right after the election WBZ talk host Dan Rea kept playing a clip of Ted Kennedy bellowing, “I feel...CHANGE!! in the air!” (roar from crowd). “How ‘bout you?”
We got change all right: Scott Philip Brown, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm
His political Patron has passed on...
Three changes down; one to go.
nope, he’s in the oil biz. TV ads show his rolling out the hoses and talking to ‘customers’ (something he doesn’t do in real life, no doubt). It was funny to hear some talk shows like Howie Carr talk about Patches and then guess what shows up when they go to a break: an ad (or public serv announcement?) from 1-800-Joe-4-Hugo.
Bullshit! He don’t have a soul to search. I remember what he said about President Bush’s tax cuts.
“Kennedy added: “There’s a hole in the soul that we all try to fill, sometimes with the wrong things, like booze or drugs. Society would tell us to fill it with consumerism. But its only really filled through love and service, by serving a high purpose. By doing God’s will.””
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He had a life changing revelation. He has new insight now. He may become the effective leader of his family. Glad he decided to follow Eunice’s example and do service for others.
Thanks. I want to hurl every time those commercials come on.
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