Update 2: Video - Patrick Kennedy Not Seeking Re-election

Bringing down the curtain on the Kennedy era? h/t Sister Toldjah on Twitter.

He's airing a statement Sunday night? It'll be old news by then.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is "taking a new direction."

Kennedy taped a message to be aired on television in Rhode Island on Sunday night. The Associated Press viewed the message ahead of the announcement.

Wow, Patrick Kennedy not running for re-election? Maybe he thinks he'd be the voter's next whipping boy?

WASHINGTON — A Democratic official says Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election for his seat representing Rhode Island in the U.S. Congress.

The official spoke to The Associated Press only on the condition that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak ahead of the official announcement.

The decision by the eight-term congressman comes less than a month after a stunning Republican upset in the race for the Massachusetts Senate seat his late father, Edward Kennedy, held for almost half a century.

Patrick Kennedy has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse since crashing his car outside the U.S Capitol in 2006. Still, he has been comfortably re-elected twice since then, after making mental health care his signature issue in Washington.

Comments

[Liberty Jane]

This is the way the reign ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

[David in San Diego]

No more Adams dynasties

No more Taft dynasties

No more Kennedy dynasties

[Andrew]

Any chance we could get the fellow he beat back 1994, Kevin Vigilante, back in for this seat? He was damned impressive. Check out that documentary, Taking on the Kennedys, on netflix. Great political documentary.

[Jim]

He can spend more time drinking.

[Aine]

There is a God and He has taken mercy on Rhode Island at last!

[Tcobb]

Its so interesting to watch the fall of the Kennedy dynasty. Its a good thing. Its a bowel movement of the body politic. We've had political constipation for far too long.

[Neo]

The "Iron Butterfly" version of Camelot ends

[mark l.]

"Not with a bang but a whimper."
sehr gut.

[Tom Frank]

As a Rhode Islander, let me offer a contrary view.

I run into Patrick fairly regularly, both in a political context and simply at the grocery store. The overwhelming impression I have gotten over the years is that he does NOT enjoy politics; I would have to say that his involvement therein was forced upon him by his family, mostly his father.

Now that his father is gone, he no longer has to please anyone other than himself. I rather suspect that he's taking advantage of the overall political situation to make good his escape from a career he really doesn't seem to like.

He's rich, he's single, and he's a Kennedy. Why put up with all the public crap when he can go and enjoy life?

He can still lobby for whatever causes he actually cares about, now without regard for who he might annoy. The family name will still have enough pull to let him accomplish what he wants, and it comes without the down side of having to please the general public (which the polls suggest were getting annoyed with him).

Win-win for everyone. We get better representation in Congress, and he gets his freedom.

[ic]

He can still lobby for whatever causes he actually cares about.

Against global warming?

[JHE]

Cocktail waitresses of the world, be afriad...be very afraid.

[SamIam]

Wouldn't be great if we never have to hear "Kennedy" again? Except, perhaps, in reference to JFK once in a while.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Why does he wear a womprat on his head? Jeez, he needs to see Maury from "Goodfellas" to get a better rug.

[leilani]

I doubt that's a rug. The Kennedy men all seem to have that Cro-Magnon look going on with their hair - more follicles than brain cells, it would seem.

[crosspatch]

Does this mean that Maria Shriver is the last Kennedy in government?

[mark gibbons]

and stay away from cape cod, you miserable drunk.

[Bilgeman]

Uhhhh, I hate to offer another contrarian view, but do y'all think he could be talked into staying on for a bit?

See, in some versions of the Moonbat Scriptures, on the day that there are no Kennedys in the Federal Government, the world comes to an end.

Just sayin'.

The last thing we need is hordes of panicked moonbats running through the streets howling and jabbering away at the skies.

[mike191]

The recent election in Massachusetts was no "joke."Also, this would be step one in a detox program.

[xerocky]

" I would have to say that his involvement therein was forced upon him by his family, mostly his father."

Wasn't that the case for all of them?

[PA BRED]

I wonder if he has his sights set a little higher in the political ladder and this frees him to pursue that .....

[bandit]

Isn't spiralling downward the same direction Patches?

[x11b1p]

Looks like the drug dealers, liquor stores and Hookers will see a big boost to their profit margins now that this human shop vac does not have to worry about the press or being a member of congress anymore.

[Always On Watch]

Yest another indication that the political status quo is about to change. And for the better.

[Lisa Graas]

This is good news for faithful Catholics.

[twolaneflash]

Interpretation of Patches' Announcement:

The New Media has exposed me for the vacuous trust fund vermin of low morals and base character that has now defined generations of my family. The Legacy Media is no longer able to lie, fabricate the narrative, and carry the Kennedy water as it has for decades past, back to Grandpa Ambassador Bootlegger Joe. I have access to a lot of ill-gotten gains the family has amassed through the power it has held in and over the U.S. government for a century. Maybe I'll take a Spring break at the family island in Georgia which the American taxpayers maintain in perpetuity for us, or the Florida compound where drunken debauchery and rape allegedly occurred with Uncle Teddy in charge, or one of the other family resorts where the ancestors did things such as pass around Marilyn Monroe like a shoebrush. Too much truth has exposed the illusion of The Kennedy Mystique for the fraud it always was, and it is now impossible for me to win, buy, or steal the election. I'm outta here! Shooters and Hooters for all my friends!

[Roborob]

I have a question I have not seen addressed: how large a chunk will the Federal Government get of Ted Kennedy's estate? What kind of exposure does his wealth have to the tax system, and why? I really want to see the Kennedys pay on the same level my family has. I want people to remember and discuss Teddy's championing of the estate tax for most of his life.

[Comanche Voter]

Passing Marilyn Monroe around like a shoe brush? Tsk Tsk.

I will say that Patches has eyes; he could look over at the ridgeline in Massachusetts and see the voter Comanches looking down at him. Time to get out of Dodge before he's staked on an ant hill