When I see the words “Patrick Kennedy” and “not again,” I just assume he’s gone and crashed his car somewhere in a drunken stupor, claiming he was on his way to a congressional vote at 2 a.m.

This did not happen, which is fortunate because there’s only so much money in this year’s federal budget for fixing barriers on Capitol Hill. Rather, the congressman from Rhode Island, who finds new ways each week to make a mockery of substance abuse victims everywhere, was just writing me a fundraising pitch for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as they try to save Jack Murtha’s House seat.