Patrick Kennedy Packs Up 63 Years of Family History

[alp227]

WASHINGTON — Nightfall on the Kennedy era in Washington looks like this: Representative Patrick J. Kennedy’s office space surrendered to a Republican, his family memorabilia in boxes, and Mr. Kennedy yearning for a role away from the public eye.

As soon as Friday, when the lame-duck session of Congress could wrap up, Mr. Kennedy, 43, will return to Rhode Island, settling into his recently renovated farmhouse in Portsmouth. When his eighth term ends early next month, no member of his family will hold national office for the first time since 1947, when John F. Kennedy became a congressman from Massachusetts.

With Mr. Kennedy’s father, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, dead for more than a year now and no one else in the family voicing plans to run for office, Capitol Hill will be left with ghosts and memories. The only politician left among them is Bobby Shriver, whose mayoral term in Santa Monica, Calif., just ended but who still sits on the City Council there.

“This is a family that once had the presidency and two Senate seats, and they’re now down to the mayor of Santa Monica,” said Darrell M. West, a Brookings Institution scholar. “It’s a pretty dramatic fall, and it’s symbolic of the decline of liberalism.”

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/us/politics/17kennedy.html

Clarification: Although Kennedy's office space is going to a Republican (don't know exactly whom), Kennedy's congressional seat is going to another Democrat, David Cicilline, former mayor of Providence, R.I. and the first openly gay mayor of a US state capital. The mayor of Santa Monica is Bobby Shriver, son of CA First Lady Maria Shriver, niece of JFK.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "...they’re now down to the mayor of Santa Monica..."

Mission accomplished.

[H2O Man]

2. Three

Senate seats.

[Mike Nelson]

3. Abby really knows how to make...

... this seem like a funeral. Wonder if she did a little jig after her story?

[jwirr]

4. I do not look at as a fall. I look at this as the history of an illustrious

family that helped to make the USA what it is. Knowing this family they do not stop helping because they are out of office. Actually the truth is that they probably are freer to help this way. Am looking forward to seeing what Patrick will dedicate his talents to now.