REP. KENNEDY TO ENTER REHAB FOR DRUG ADDICTION

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.), after crashing his
automobile early Thursday into a security barricade, said today he
will check into the Mayo Clinic for additional treatment.

Kennedy, who has received previous treatment for depression and
addiction to pain medications, said he decided to seek help because
the incident "concerns me greatly."

"I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by
the police or being cited for three driving infractions," Kennedy
said at a Washington news conference broadcast live on cable television.

"That's not how I want to live my life, and it's not how I want to
represent the people of Rhode Island."

Kennedy said he had received treatment at the Mayo Clinic in
Minnesota over the Christmas holiday that lasted through the
congressional recess in January, allowing him to return to his job
"reinvigorated and healthy." Moreover, he said, he had been since
then "strong, focused and productive."

But he admitted he "struggles everyday with this disease," which can
be thwarted by what he called "everyday life". Even taking
over-the-counter medications can create problems for him, part of
what he described as "a reality of fighting a chronic condition."

As Kennedy walked away from the podium, he was asked whether he
intended to resign and shook his head no, the Associated Press
reported. "I need to stay in the fight," he reportedly said without
answering other questions.

Kennedy's father, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), issued a statement
today saying that he was proud of his son for admitting he has a
problem and seeking treatment.

The U.S. Capitol Police was still investigating Patrick Kennedy for
an incident in which he crashed his car into a security barricade at
2:45 a.m. Thursday, setting off an intense public furor over whether
he got preferential treatment.

Kennedy said he was disoriented from taking prescription drugs --
Phenergan to treat gastroenteritis and Ambien, a sleep medication --
and that he was rushing to the Capitol under the misapprehension that
he was late for a vote.

"I never asked for any preferential treatment," Kennedy said late
Thursday to a reporter's question. Saying it was "up to the police to
decide" whether the treatment had been preferential, Kennedy vowed to
"cooperate fully" with the investigation.

Police officers on the scene reported that Kennedy staggered from his
car, a green 1997 Ford Mustang convertible.

"The subject's eyes were red, watery, his speech was slurred, his
balance unsure," said the police report. But higher-ups at the scene
prevented officers from giving Kennedy a breathalyzer test, according
to the police union, which filed a protest.

"The driver exited the vehicle and he was observed to be staggering,"
wrote Greg Baird, acting chairman of the U.S. Capitol Police's
Fraternal Order of Police, in a letter.

Officers approached the driver, who "declared to them he was a
congressman and was late to a vote," Baird wrote. "The House had
adjourned nearly three hours before this incident."

Police issued Kennedy three "notices of infractions" in connection
with his early morning car crash near the Capitol, according to the
police report.

But Baird wrote that the officers were not permitted to perform basic
field sobriety tests and that the watch commander on duty "ordered
all of the patrol division units to leave the scene." Officers then
drove Kennedy home, the congressman said in his second statement.

The incident set off a huge uproar in the blogosphere. The Boston
Herald headlined its online opinion piece, by Kennedy's bete noire,
Howie Carr, "Ted K. Passes Keys to His Son."

Another blogger, Robbie Cooper of urbrangrounds.com, referring to
Sen. Kennedy's accident more than 30 years ago at Chappaquiddick,
wrote, "A Kennedy, a Car, a Crash, and a Coverup....Stop me if you've
heard this one."

Patrick Kennedy said, "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident,"
and confirmed that he was in an accident at First and C streets near
the House office buildings. The congressman, the youngest of three
children of Sen. Kennedy and his former wife, Joan Bennett Kennedy,
plans to grant interviews to local Rhode Island media after he
returns to his district.

Kennedy, 38, said he had seen Congress' attending physician two days
before and had been prescribed Phenergan to treat gastroenteritis.
The drug, which is used to control nausea, may cause "considerable
drowsiness," according to Physicians' Desk Reference.

After a series of votes Wednesday evening, Kennedy said, he took
prescribed doses of Phenergan and Ambien, a drug he said the Capitol
physician had given him some time ago for occasional sleeplessness.

Lehigh Valley Local Links "Apparently, I was disoriented from the
medication," he said, repeating his earlier statement that "at no
time before the incident did I use any alcohol."

"At no time did I ask for any special consideration," he added. "I
simply complied with what the officers asked me to do."

Thursday's incident comes only weeks after Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney
(D-Ga.) outraged Capitol police by poking an officer in the chest
after he asked the congresswoman, who was not wearing her
identification pin, to stop and go through the metal detectors. She
later apologized on the House floor.

It is not clear whether Kennedy will claim congressional immunity, or
whether such a claim would be viable. An old constitutional provision
says that members of Congress have immunity from arrest going to and
from sessions, said Stanley Brand, who was general counsel to the
House from 1976 to 1983.

But the Supreme Court has interpreted the immunity as applying to
congressional duties. In this case, Brand said, "you would have to
weigh the facts and circumstances."

Kennedy's past includes several troubling episodes, starting with his
treatment in 1986 for cocaine use. More recent, a charter company
accused him of causing $28,000 in damage to a rented yacht in 2000.
That same year, he acknowledged that he was "on a lot of different
medications for, among other things, depression," and was accused of
shoving an airport security guard at Los Angeles International
Airport when she tried to make him check his bag.

He was in a traffic incident last month in his home district,
according to Carr, who reported that the mishap occurred as Kennedy
was hurrying into the parking lot of a pharmacy in Portsmouth, R.I.

Last year, Kennedy and his siblings, Edward M. Kennedy Jr. and Kara
Kennedy Allen, took legal custody of their mother, who has battled alcoholism.

Their father was involved in an infamous traffic accident in 1969,
when he drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., adjacent
to Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy swam to safety; a female passenger,
Mary Jo Kopechne, died.

The senator, who was 37 at the time, said he did not report the
accident for eight hours because he was in shock.

Times staff writer Daryl Strickland contributed to this report, as
well as the Associated Press.