Bobbie Manfredo, right, of North Providence, gets ready to pose for a photo with actor Martin Sheen yesterday morning in Warwick. At left is Adrienne Vincente, of Warwick.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

PROVIDENCE — Bouncing from one campaign stop to another yesterday with Democratic party cheerleader, actor and West Wing “President” Martin Sheen at his side, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy lashed into Republican Governor Carcieri for his attempts to win a federal waiver that would “tear a hole” in the state’s Medicaid safety-net for the low-income elderly and disabled.

Standing under a Bingo scoreboard in the linoleum-tiled lunchroom of the Harborview Manor in East Providence, Kennedy assailed the national GOP first for espousing policies that, in his view, let polluters pollute and the national financial market “run wild” in the name of “deregulation.” Then, he turned his sights on Carcieri.

“Medicaid, of course, is the safety net and you know our governor is trying to find a way to waiver around that which would absolutely undermine the whole nature of Medicaid,” he said.

“Talk about deregulation,” he said. “That’s the ultimate in deregulation. … It’s eliminating the protections for people with disabilities … just so he can save a few dollars in the budget … and be able to put a priority on people who are more politically powerful than the most disabled in our society.”

In a brief interview before he headed out to his next campaign stop, Kennedy said he was briefed by officials from the federal agency that would have to sign off on the Carcieri administration’s waiver request and they told him “they had not yet looked at the state’s application and they had not begun negotiations with the state.”

In response, Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said: “It’s clear Congressman Kennedy does not understand the waiver or the scope of negotiations. The administration would be happy to provide Congressman Kennedy with a briefing of the waiver, although he has never asked.” Carcieri is seeking unprecedented discretion in how the state spends hundreds of millions of federal Medicaid dollars, in exchange for a five-year cap on spending. Carcieri describes the initiative as an opportunity to provide consumers — including elderly people who might otherwise go into nursing homes, with more “choices,” but concerned lawmakers from here to Washington worry it will undermine what is now a medical care “entitlement program” for people who meet income-criteria.

Kennedy launched into his riff on a day after an unannounced shakeup in the top ranks of the state’s human-services administration came to light.

Day-to-day operations of the mammoth Department of Human Services were shifted from DHS Director Gary Alexander to William Camara, the former administrator of the Rhode Island Veterans Home, so that Alexander could “focus” on selling to the federal government the Medicaid waiver-request on which the state has hinged $67 million in anticipated budget savings.

Sheen, who has played four American presidents — including Patrick Kennedy’s uncle, the late John F. Kennedy — steered clear of the local imbroglios. He lauded the Rhode Island congressman for championing passage of a mental-health parity bill, called him a personal hero, and paraphrasing a quote attributed to Andrew Jackson, said: “One heart with courage is a majority.”

While at a recent fundraiser for Senate candidate and friend, Al Franken, he said he got “news of President Bush’s new economic policy and I said, ‘Really what is it?’ ” The answer: “He promises to turn off the light at the end of the tunnel.” The crowd roared.

Kennedy’s Republican opponent, Jonathan Scott, criticized him for finding time to campaign with an actor, but not to debate him. “Martin Sheen is an actor. He lives in California. Like Patrick Kennedy, he is a millionaire. He does not live in our state. He does not care about our state or about our taxpayers and to dedicate a legislator’s day to him is an abdication of that legislator’s responsibilities to the people who hired him. It should not be tolerated.”