Ramstad reaches out to colleague recovering from addiction

WASHINGTON --They're both congressmen, and they're both addicts.

So when Minnesota Republican Jim Ramstad heard that a friend in a drug-induced state had been in a late-night car wreck, he did what he said any friend in recovery would do: He reached out to help.

The friend was Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, the Kennedy family scion from Rhode Island. After a high-profile political dustup in Washington, Kennedy underwent 28 days of treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where he was released early this month.

Ramstad visited him four Saturdays in a row, and agreed to sponsor Kennedy's recovery, accompanying him to recovery meetings and staying in regular contact.

"It was no different for me visiting Patrick Kennedy than it is visiting with 'Patrick Jones,'" Ramstad said. "We recover by talking, listening and supporting each other."

It's the same way Ramstad recovered from alcohol addiction 25 years ago, after he woke up from an alcoholic blackout in a jail cell in Sioux Falls, S.D.

"He's provided a support to me by his ability to incorporate his own experience in a way that I really couldn't get from anyone else," Kennedy said Thursday in an interview with the Star Tribune, his first since returning to Washington. "He's got the perspective of being both a member of Congress and somebody who's in recovery."

One of the things that Ramstad and Kennedy discussed was their longtime bipartisan effort to pass "parity" legislation for mental health and chemical dependency treatment. The bill would bar health plans from charging higher co-payments and deductibles for such treatment than they do for other ailments.

"We're going to redouble our efforts, and Patrick's openness and honesty and experience are going to help us publicize the need for treatment for people who are still struggling," Ramstad said.

They have 228 sponsors in the House and 68 in the Senate. That's more than enough for passage. But until now, GOP House leaders who oppose the legislation have blocked it from a vote.

Ramstad and Kennedy have teamed up before as founders of the Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus in Congress. Ramstad also has a history of taking recovering addicts under his wing, including convicted Colorado murderer Kent LeBere, whose battle with alcohol addiction loomed as an issue in his defense.

Kennedy, the 38-year-old nephew of President John F. Kennedy and a six-term member of Congress, complicated his long-term struggle with bipolar disorder on May 4 when he collided with a police barrier on Capitol Hill during a swerving 2:45 a.m. drive without headlights.

Police found him at the wheel disoriented, talking about heading to the Capitol to vote, even though Congress was not in session.

D.C. officials are investigating whether alcohol was a factor, although Kennedy has denied it. He has blamed the crash on the effects of prescription medications.

Despite their long friendship, Ramstad said he didn't see it coming.

"I didn't know he was struggling to that degree," he said. "As a recovering person myself, I try not to take other people's inventories, I try not to be judgmental. That's such an individual thing. Only an individual can tell if he or she is an alcoholic or an addict."

Kennedy apparently decided he was.

Reporting for treatment in Minnesota, Kennedy received a number of high-profile visitors, including former Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III and his son, Buck.

But it is Ramstad, nearing 25 years of sobriety on July 31, whom Kennedy said he will lean on most heavily.

"He's been absolutely the best in pointing out that blessings come in different ways," Kennedy said. "This is an opportunity to lead a better life, not in the shadows of the illness. He's grateful he got a wake-up call ... and I also got a great wake-up call."

Ramstad has also stuck up for Kennedy politically, warning Rhode Island Republicans and others that calls for Kennedy's resignation would be a "slap in the face" of all recovering addicts like himself.

Kennedy plans to stay in office and face the consequences of the legal case before him. Ramstad has offered to be at his side during the judicial proceedings.

One irony of the situation is that the modern treatment ethos calls for the recovering addict to follow the lead of the sponsor.

Said Kennedy, a proud Democrat: "It will be the first time in my life that I will have a Republican telling me what to do."

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Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com