Patrick Kennedy leaves drug rehab with political career in question

Congressman Patrick Kennedy

GDO Report

Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of Senator Edward Kennedy, has just emerged from a month in a drug rehabilitation facility.

He checked in after being involved in a late night car accident near the US Capitol, and questions remain over the circumstances of that crash.

Washington Correspondent Michael Rowland.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Patrick Kennedy is very familiar with the notorious Kennedy curse. He has a long history of alcoholism, drug addiction and depression, but none of this has stopped him from notching up 12 years in the US Congress, where he serves with his father and family patriarch, Ted.

The 38-year-old Rhode Island congressman was thrust back into the spotlight last month, after crashing his car into a traffic barrier very early one morning.

Police at the scene said Mr Kennedy appeared to be drunk, a charge the Democrat lawmaker strenuously denied.

Instead, he admitted to being addicted to prescription drugs and promptly checked himself into an exclusive drug rehabilitation centre.

Today, Patrick Kennedy emerged from treatment, still adamant about his sobriety on the night of the accident.

PATRICK KENNEDY: I was not drinking that night.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Congressman Kennedy says he spent the night with an unnamed woman who can back up his story.

PATRICK KENNEDY: Someone was with me. She's attested to, you know, prosecutors down in Washington that she smelt no alcohol on my breath.

The… The every bar in Washington was combed through and through and through. There wasn't a person in that city that wasn't asked did they see me out that night.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: It may never be known what state Mr Kennedy was in that night, as the police, despite their concerns about the congressman's sobriety, chose not to breath test him.

This has triggered accusations Mr Kennedy received favourable treatment, a charge he hasn't specifically denied.

PATRICK KENNEDY: I felt that I never asked for preferential treatment.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Mr Kennedy insists the strongest substances in his body were a sleeping pill and an anti-nausea medication, but he still hasn't explained just why he was on the road so early in the morning when Congress had adjourned hours previously.

Still, he says, the accident was a wake-up call.

PATRICK KENNEDY: It was my actions, I'm held responsible for them, I'm going to take accountability for them, and then I want to just move on, because, you know, that's what it's all about to me.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The incident's unlikely to cause too much damage to Patrick Kennedy's political career. Within days of the accident Rhode Island Democrats re-endorsed him for this year's congressional elections.

The Kennedy name, it appears, is still capable of transcending the most public of indiscretions