Joseph Kennedy To Leave Congress Eldest Son Of The Late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Says Life’s Hard Lessons Call For New Priorities

In a surprise announcement, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., D-Mass., said Friday he is pulling out of politics.

“There is no greater honor than serving in the Congress, standing up for what you believe,” the 45-year-old, six-term congressman declared. “But it’s time to reconsider my priorities.”

The eldest son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy revealed his intentions at a hastily assembled news conference on the steps of Citizens Energy Corp., the heating oil company he founded here in 1979. When he ran for retiring House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr.’s congressional seat a dozen years ago, Kennedy turned the company over to his younger brother Michael.

Joe Kennedy was present when Michael was killed in a New Year’s Eve skiing accident, and the congressman said Friday he will return to Citizens Energy as CEO after he completes his term.

He explained: “The last year has brought me a new recognition of our own individual vulnerabilities and the vagaries of life.”

Kennedy also suffered some embarrassments last year. Kennedy’s former wife published a book accusing him of bullying her into annulling their marriage. Michael, then running Joe’s campaign for governor, was investigated for carrying on an affair with his children’s teen-age baby sitter. Kennedy’s bid for the statehouse, once considered a sure thing, began to stumble, and he abandoned the effort last August.

But while Kennedy’s decision to leave office signaled a decline in a 40-year era during which Kennedy Democrats were among the most powerful politicians in Washington, some political analysts cautioned against assuming that the heady days of Kennedy politics were coming to an end.

“You’ve got Patrick (a Democratic congressman from Rhode Island), you’ve got Kathleen (the lieutenant governor of Maryland) - there’s lots of Kennedys to go around,” said Bill Schneider, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Joe Kennedy himself did not rule out a return to electoral politics in the future, Schneider noted.

Rather than a dynasty in decline, “I think what’s in decline is the political mandate for Kennedy-ism,” Schneider said. As a member of the “tyrannized and oppressed” minority party in Congress, Kennedy “just doesn’t have any power - he can’t get anything done in government right now,” Schneider said.