Patrick Kennedy spoke yesterday before a group of mental health specialists at Brown University (and the assembled press). Now he's heading back to Congress, where he'll join the rest of the burnouts to bicker about homos and wetbacks. We're not sure why people keep saying he's unfit to be a Congressman, he's like the platonic ideal of a member of the House. Dumb as a brick, a few too many generations removed from greatness, able to skirt any kind of serious trouble with connections and occasional mea cuplas, and locked into his seat for life.

Seriously, though, addiction is a disease, and we hope he's able to deal with it, but do you think Congress would get more done if everyone was on uppers instead of pain meds and Scotch? At least he's got help:

He said, for example, that House colleague Jim Ramstad, a Minnesota Republican, a long-recovering alcoholic, has agreed to be his sponsor in recovery.

Hey, Jim Ramstad! Just how many dry drunks are there in Congress, fer chrissakes? Anyway, we all know that the only thing America hates more than immigrants is quitters.

Full Disclosure: We are personally acquainted with Jim Ramstad's presumptive November opponent. Sober as a judge, she is.

Kennedy back in public eye [ProJo]