Reply #30: Admirable would have been checking into rehab [View All]

before being caught and nationally embarrassed, not afterwards. Esp. if he's been through rehab a time or two before and is simply relapsing. He knows the drill.

There's little that can be said for doing what is necessary when it becomes necessary. That's doing what's required. By checking into rehab, he did the responsible thing, the thing needed for the courts to show leniency, and the thing needed to save face with his constituency at home. And, presumably, any honor within his family.

Assigning primacy to any of those motives is a judgment based more on politics and beliefs than on evidence. Repubs will say it's either the second or third motive that's *really* in play (or both), discounting the first; dems will say it's the first, and to imply it's either the second or third is calumny.

Were Kennedy's political leanings reversed, the motives are assigned by the two groups would also be reversed.

I have no judgment about Kennedy in this matter, and don't regard his seeking treatment to be related to his political views in the least.