I'm not going to mince words. I think Patrick Kennedy is an incompetent buffoon who coasts through life on his family name.  It seems that the more he talks, the more he just confirms my impressions, which I'm sure are shared by a great deal of Rhode Islanders.  That could be one reason Kennedy has avoided holding a town hall meeting for the general public.  You might have heard the saying, "It is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt".  To me, that sums up the reason for his avoidance of town halls.  That's what I thought, but after reading today's Providence Journal, it appears I'm wrong.

     It turns out Patrick Kennedy doesn't want to hold a public meeting because of all the "violent rhetoric".  He then commented further:


“Unfortunately, these town hall meetings have been hijacked by these Tea Party folks and extremists who really take away from the honest dialog on the facts of the debate and end up seeing this issue devolve into fear mongering and the peddling of misconceptions,”


     Violent rhetoric?  Would that be a reference to people being upset and disagreeing with him?  "Tea Party Folks"?  Oh, those must be the people who get up every morning, go to work, pay their taxes, then watch Congressmen spend it by passing bills they don't read.  Finally, we have my favorite, Patrick's reference to "extremists".  I'm not sure what he considers an extremist, but if Tea Party members are right wing extremists, then surely Patrick and his famous family must be left wing extremists. 

     What Patrick doesn't want to admit is that it isn't the "extremists" he has a problem with.  After all, he hangs out with extremists every time he goes to a family reunion.  His real problem is his inability to hold his own against those who disagree with him.  You would think that a typical Congressman could handle himself after working his way through the ranks and fighting for his position.  Of course, Patrick Kennedy admittedly never worked for much, and he has no intention of starting now