Patrick Kennedy

“Where’s Al Franken?”
That’s what bloggers and reporters have been asking in recent days. Well, on Saturday at midnight he was greeting union picketers with a hug and a kiss in the sleet in downtown Minneapolis. Video (and update) after the jump.

While Rep. Jim Ramstad’s name has been floated as a possible choice for “drug czar” in the administration of Barack Obama, the retiring nine-term congressman has apparently set his sights on another job, head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — and the Republican has enlisted Democrats, notably Sen. Edward Kennedy and Reps. Patrick Kennedy and Pete Stark, to lobby on his behalf.

U.S. Reps. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) and Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) won passage of legislation requiring health insurance companies to cover mental illnesses just as they cover physical ailments. The House on Tuesday approved the Sen. Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act by a vote of 376 to 47.