Who among us hasn't watched a police car go flying down the road with its lights blazing and siren blaring and mused, "Hmph. I'll bet there's no real emergency."
But who's going to give a speeding ticket to a speeding cop?
That's essentially the question posed by the Philadelphia Daily News yesterday as it reported that state police have clocked Gov. Ed Rendell's limo -- which is driven by state police -- tearing up the highway at speeds of more than 100 mph.
And we're not talking about just one instance where the governor was running late for a news conference about a new state slogan. According to anonymous sources cited by the Daily News, this has happened nine times since November.
One time, a trooper who saw the car flash past him decided to give chase, but he stopped when Rendell's driver got on the vehicle's police radio and said, "This is Executive One."
Rendell has a fleet of cars, two airplanes and a bus at his disposal. But he usually cruises the commonwealth in a state-owned Cadillac DeVille DHS.
He spends a lot of his drive time on the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, a trip of a little more than a hundred miles. And, apparently, the best way to cover a hundred miles is by doing 100 mph.
State troopers assigned to his security detail do the driving with the governor usually buckled safely into the front passenger seat. And, according to those unidentified sources, it's Rendell, who is notorious for running late, urging the driver to step on it.
Rendell declined to be interviewed on the topic by the Daily News, but his spokeswoman, Kate Philips, denied that he orders his drivers to speed.
"The governor would never ask someone to break the law," she said.
That, it seems, is the issue. Because the speed limit on rural sections of the turnpike is 65 mph. And the law says that emergency lights and sirens are to be used by police in enforcement of the law only during an emergency or in the interest of public safety.
A state police spokeswoman yesterday told The Associated Press that the department is investigating a complaint received late last week about the speed of the governor's car. And they're going to look into the allegations in the Daily News story.
Rendell's office issued a statement saying that he was "not aware of any instance of my executive detail being cited for driving at unlawfully high rates of speed."
But that's the point. The "executive detail" hasn't been cited.
Philips also said that Rendell does not know how fast his driver is going.
"He's typically working in the car or on the phone or reading and writing, and he doesn't pay attention to the speedometer," she said. "It's not his job. But he does depend on the troopers to get him to and from where he needs to go safely and on time, and they do a stellar job. He's confident and secure in his passenger seat."
We all like to be confident and secure on the highway. I'm not sure how a vehicle going 100 mph helps us do that.
And then there are real emergencies
There are bomb threats and fire drills. And then there's standing in line for a scrubbing in a tent shower in the hospital parking lot because someone sent two envelopes containing a white, powdery substance to the Armstrong County Courthouse.
Who knew that an X-rated theater could have an appeal?
The city's quest to close the Garden Theater on the North Side, an X-rated venue, has taken more than six years, involves eminent domain and free speech issues. And it's not over. The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal.