If the voters in Massachusetts can close out the Kennedy legacy, apparently so can the voters in Rhode Island.  Patrick Kennedy has held his Congressional seat for eight terms of office, clinging to his office even an embarrassing revelation of addiction a few years ago.  However, Kennedy may not be able to withstand the anti-incumbent fervor in what has been a state almost as reliably blue as Massachusetts (via JWF):

John Loughlin is not named in the poll, but he may have fared far better than the elected officials who were.

Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters in the First Congressional District would consider another candidate or vote to replace Loughlin’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, according to a WPRI-TV, Channel 12 survey released Thursday night.

The poll offers a snapshot of an abysmal political climate for Democrats that could present serious problems for the eight-term incumbent Kennedy, according to pollster Joseph Fleming.

“It looks like it could be a very competitive race, which we haven’t seen in many years,” Fleming said, noting that Election Day is still nine months away. “I think people, right now, are really looking at who’s in office, and they’re considering somebody else.”

Loughlin announced for the race yesterday as this poll was released.  It provided a fortuitous launch to his campaign, although the pollster told WPRI that timing was entirely coincidental.  Kennedy only got 35% of respondents to say they’d vote for him again, a very poor showing for any incumbent, and especially for a Kennedy in New England.  WPRI has the demographics, and they look even worse:

• Majorities in every age demo give Kennedy either “fair” or “poor” job approval numbers
• Only 40% of women give him “excellent” or “good” ratings, with 57% negative
• 59% of union households rate him fair or poor
• Democrats approve of Kennedy 57%/40%, while independents show 25%/72%
• On ObamaCare, the overall mood of the state is significantly negative, 38%/50%

Put simply, Kennedy has no base left outside of political affiliation. That won’t be enough to get Kennedy re-elected, especially not in the political environment of 2010.  It doesn’t help when Kennedy calls the result of the anger in Massachusetts a “joke” (via Gateway Pundit):

Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-Mass.) election has been shown to be “a joke,” the son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said Thursday.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) castigated Brown for having pushed to be sworn in ahead of schedule to permanently fill the Senate seat left vacant by the congressman’s father’s death in August.

“Brown’s whole candidacy was shown to be a joke today when he was sworn in early in order to cast his first vote as an objection to Obama’s appointment to the NLRB,” Kennedy said Thursday.

Perhaps — but the joke appears to be on the Kennedys and their hard-Left acolytes.