Kennedy's version of car crash 'unbelievable'

Pawtucket, Rhode Island: The bad news for Representative Patrick Kennedy: The voters of Rhode Island do not, by and large, seem to believe his version of what led to a car crash early on Thursday outside the US Capitol.

"I don't buy the medicine story," said Michael Rossi, a nurse waiting in line at a news and video kiosk in this small downtown.

He said he thought alcohol was to blame for the crash, not the prescription drugs cited by Kennedy.

Now the good news for Kennedy: The voters of Rhode Island including Rossi also don't seem to care.

"It's a separate issue," said Rossi, who said he would remain a Kennedy supporter. "He's got maybe an alcohol problem. That doesn't make him a bad representative." Similar stories were told again and again across Kennedy's district, which covers a swath of suburbs, strip malls, and run-down mill towns around the northern and eastern borders of the state.

From Pawtucket to Woonsocket, the six-term representative's sins were often forgiven almost before they were admitted, by people who said they were motivated by his hard work, his power or just the traditional indulgence granted to Kennedys in this region.

"Somehow, I still love him," said Helen Lisi, a retiree from Lincoln, Rhode Island, who was eating with her daughter at a pub on Friday in Cumberland. Maybe it was all that Kennedy had done for senior citizens, she said.

"We all have our problems," said her daughter, Cheryl LaRiviere, a teacher who said Kennedy had also done good things for teachers. "I think that's a personal situation."

Kennedy, 38, the son of Senator Edward Kennedy, came to Rhode Island to attend Providence College, and stayed to begin a political career in the state legislature.

He was first elected to the US House in the First District in 1994.