Katherine Baker Knoll

The Governor's Office has announced that Lt. Governor Katherine Baker Knoll has succumbed to cancer at the age of 78.

We have no wish to speak ill of the dead, but it seems appropriate for us to roll out our chance encounter with the late Ms. Knoll from back in 2006.

We had just finished voting in our nondescript polling place in Pittsburgh and pushed the door open, only to find an elderly tiny woman, who had obviously just stepped out from the stretch limo that was parked in front of the senior center, with a rather large body guard right behind her.

"Oh! Hello," we said holding the door for the Lt. Governor, "Nice to meet you."

She returned our greeting, with a mixture of shock and surprise that anyone in this Podunk polling place would recognize a Lt. Governor if she came up an bit them on the ass.

And that was that. We went on our way and the Lt. Governor went in to visit the poll workers.

It's not much of a story, but it is our brief brush with the Lt. Governorship.

Our Senator Carper (D-DE) story is far superior.

In a more cold, calculating vein: Ed Rendell will not be accepting a position in the Obama administration until his term is up, lest Republican Joe Scarnati, now Lt. Governor, take his office.