Howie Kurtz observes that, “It’s hard to imagine that Patrick Kennedy would have gotten elected to Congress a dozen years ago without his last name. It’s equally hard to imagine that the media would be going wild about his late-night car crash and prescription drug addiction if he weren’t a Kennedy.” Both certainly true.
Kurtz notes the kid gloves treatment the young Kennedy has gotten in the national press, contrasting it with rather brutal coverage locally, “where Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr last week called him ‘generally dumber than two rocks.’”
Still, writes Kurtz,
It’s difficult not to feel sympathy for Kennedy, who grew up in a relentlessly scrutinized family in which two of his uncles were murdered. But soft-focus media coverage has given him plenty of chances, far more than would be accorded a run-of-the-mill congressman with his history of self-inflicted wounds.
It’s hard to feel too much sympathy for spoiled rich kids raising to positions of political power because of people’s inexplicable fascination with a corrupt family.
