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"Lowdown caught up with Kennedy at P.S. 11 in Chelsea, where he was sitting in a wingback chair and reading aloud to third-graders in a sing-song voice — from his new children's book, "My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C."

Ted Kennedy doesn't take Al Gore at face value when the ex-veep claims he's not flirting with White House ambitions again.

"He's going to have to decide what he has to do," the Massachusetts senator told Lowdown the other day, making it clear that Gore is keeping his options open. "Al Gore has made a breathtaking contribution to the dialogue … on the environment and global warming. ... He has all the great qualities of leadership."

Not that Kennedy's endorsing anyone.

Sen. Hillary Clinton is "going to be an extremely significant contender, should she decide to run," he said. As for the 74-year-old Kennedy, a Democratic icon who's serving his eighth term, he's "just working hard trying to get reelected. I'm going to stay in the Senate until I get the hang of it."

Meanwhile, the Big Guy told the Daily News' Angie Wallace about his problem-plagued son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.): "I'm proud of him. He's accepting responsibility."

His Portuguese water dogs, Splash and Sunny, were also present, and Kennedy talked baby talk to Splash, who did a stupid pet trick with a tennis ball in his mouth. The trick apparently was that Splash refused to let anyone have the ball as his master cooed: "Show me the ball! Splash Kennedy, you know I want the ball! Splash! Splashy! Now you know I want that ball!"

Lowdown caught up with Kennedy at P.S. 11 in Chelsea, where he was sitting in a wingback chair and reading aloud to third-graders in a sing-song voice — from his new children's book, "My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C."

SO let's see. This is the same Kennedy who lobbied to disuade the electric company to cease and desist when they wanted to erect power-generating windmills, for fear it would ruin the view, but he loves what Al Gore is doing. This is the same Kennedy who drowned a young woman, walked away from it without doing a day of hard time...at least OJ was in the slammer throughout his trial...and names his dog SPLASH. This is the same Kennedy who was shot from several different...whoops...sorry, that day the wrong Kennedy was forever silenced.