Kennedy, who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, says the Democrats "don't need to win the middle in order to capture the House" in this fall's elections. West quotes him as saying the GOP will attack his family, helping Democrats to win by galvanizing turnout in their base, which is liberal.

In March 1999, months after the congressman pledged to stick with the 2000 House campaign job, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was so keen to have him in the Senate that his staff "leaked erroneous reports" to the media that his son might still run for Sen. John H. Chafee's seat.

PATRICK KENNEDY wouldn't talk about the book, saying it's "unauthorized" and he hasn't read it. Senator Kennedy also issued a "no comment."

West dwells on Kennedy's apprenticeship, trading lightly in the sort of news that has embittered him toward media coverage of his family. But there is this nugget from an unnamed source: "Family members did not want to fly" with the late John F. Kennedy Jr. because of his inexperience and dyslexia.

West tells how Kennedy had used his name and the media to raise cash, push partisan causes, and get power. He notes pointedly that Rhode Island labor leader Arthur A. Coia and the magnate of the Bally gambling empire helped him get on the fundraising map. He reveals that Kennedy has taken free plane trips from GTECH, the world's largest lottery operator based in West Greenwich. He reprises Kennedy's associations -- all lawful -- with some of the characters of the 1996 campaign finance scandals.

The biography is generally sympathetic, with much testimony of how down-to-earth people find Kennedy in first encounters. He's attuned to the feelings of others; good at one-on-one transactions; respectful of his elders; hardworking and resilient. He bounces back from attacks and failures.

Kennedy also appears here as as a temperate drinker, despite his youthful troubles with alcohol and drugs, and a conscientious self-improver. West shows his dogged efforts to conquer a deep-seated shyness and weakness at public speaking. West replays some of the flops, too. Example: the 1988 bout with radio talk-show host (now Mayor) Vincent A. Cianci Jr. that revealed how poorly he knew the neighborhood he sought to represent in the General Assembly. Later in the book, West shows how much Kennedy has learned.

West describes Kennedy's knack for finding mentors, from speech coach Barbara Tannenbaum, of Brown University, who became a confidante on Kennedy's personal and political dilemmas (but later was dumped) to House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, D-Mo.

There are hints at a lonely aspect to the life of the rich and famously named congressman: the perfect autumn afternoon devoted to another dreary political meeting, rather than sports with pals. But these are few, and sketchy. West lets down readers seeking details of Kennedy's romantic life.

Also patchy is West's picture of the big political forces at play in some major events, with the result that Kennedy's role is sometimes exaggerated.

More fully developed is a darker side of West's courteous, willing-to-please Kennedy. Kennedy is shown a man who hides behind his staff in difficult moments, sometimes covering up with untruthful statements.

West traces that habit to the opening of Kennedy's career, when he broke a promise to address a Hope High School graduation. He went out with friends instead and had a staffer take the blame for a fictional scheduling snafu, according to West.

West also portrays Kennedy as a demanding personality who can be less than loyal and straightforward in his dealings. After ducking the first media queries about the rape charge against his cousin, William Kennedy Smith, Kennedy gave an interview disclaiming any knowledge of the matter but noting that the woman "was a guest of one of my cousins."

"Patrick hung Willie out to dry" in that interview, West quotes a family friend as saying. But West also notes how helpful Kennedy's eventual trial testimony was in Smith's acquittal.

West writes that Kennedy tried to launch an international trading business in 1992, bankrolling a staff and a lavish office in downtown Providence. In the process, he closed the modest office in his representative district, failed to pay the landlady the rent due her and "unceremoniously" dumped his staff. The trade venture failed.

In political battle, West finds an uneasy blend in Kennedy: boldness and impulsiveness alternating with timidity and self-doubt. During the Rhode Island credit union crash of 1991, he stood apart from other Democrats by criticizing the state party chairman, Sal Mancini, for conflict-of-interest.

But Kennedy and some fellow liberals stayed away from a news conference that allies in a group opposed to the House leadership in the General Assembly called that winter to accuse Speaker Joseph DeAngelis of such a conflict. Then-Rep. Ray Rickman, a Kennedy friend, is quoted as calling the absent liberals "chicken." He adds, "Patrick, as much as possible, likes to go solo."

Later, Kennedy attacked the weakening DeAngelis. West has an ally of the speaker calling Kennedy a politician "who savaged his opponents" to promote himself, much in the way that U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., brought down House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, on his way to power.

DeAngelis, who eventually resigned, expresses more puzzlement than bitterness to West. He was surprised that Kennedy questioned his honesty because, in their personal dealings, he had always found Kennedy friendly and respectful.

West sounds a striking echo four years later from Chafee, who said he was puzzled by a rash of media attacks from Kennedy because their personal dealings had always seemed "rather pleasant."

"You can be either nice," as Kennedy's top lieutenant put it in another context, "or you can win."

The campaign against the purchase of Roger Williams Hospital by the for-profit Columbia/HCA company of Tennessee turned into Kennedy's signal victory as a legislator. Like the Kennedy-assisted rout of Speaker DeAngelis, it also illustrates two recurrent themes of West's book.

One is that Kennedy and his brain trust have displayed superb instincts, good timing, and some great luck in the selection of his enemies. The other is that the power of his family and the soundness of his career strategy have more than compensated for Kennedy's weaknesses. At the big forks in the road, Kennedy and his mentors have usually chosen the path to higher office, easier victories, more power.

The big exception is John Chafee and his Senate seat. Patrick and Ted Kennedy are shown as approaching that potential rung on the son's career ladder from markedly different angles. Patrick Kennedy blasted Chafee in bitterly personal terms soon after his arrival in Congress until the year the senator died. Many assumed this was Kennedy's preparation to run against Chafee, but he never took the plunge.

West portrays Ted Kennedy's view as more complicated. He is quoted in an overheard conversation as saying, "John Chafee is one of the best people in the Senate because his word is his word." He nudged his son repeatedly toward a challenge for the Senate seat now held by Chafee's son. Had he jumped into that race, Kennedy might well be the favorite today.

West portrays the younger Kennedy as comfortable with his decision to stay in the House, where he is blossoming outside his father's shadow and rising to the challenge of toppling the Republican majority.

One day, says an aide, Patrick Kennedy may become Rhode Island's first Speaker of the House.

Copyright 2000 The Providence Journal Company