Aug. 30--Boy, did the planners putting together next month's G-20 summit of economic and world leaders in Pittsburgh blow it. Big-time.

Not only will heavily frequented parts of the city be off-limits to those who most frequent them, commerce -- as the term generally is defined outside Pittsburgh's confines, that is -- will be halted and police-state perimeters and checkpoints will be the rule rather than the exception.

All of this nonsense could have been avoided -- and the city could have reaped real benefits and real national and international media coverage of "working" Pittsburgh -- by using the city merely as the backdrop and holding all of the Group of 20's official and unofficial events off-site.

Oh, what a time for Teresa Heinz to keep her mouth shut, eh?

Had Mrs. Heinz screamed loud enough or stamped her feet hard enough -- or instructed husband John Kerry to do so -- she could have been more than just the hostess with the mostest (hair) at a measly little lunch for the spouses of the dignitaries on a single afternoon.

Heck, she could have hosted the whole shebang. Our Teresa would have been the Queen Bee, the Chief Cheese and the most important of the Cluckety Clucks among the Muckety Mucks of what surely would have been dubbed (by her, of course) as The Rosemont Summit, named after her Fox Chapel farm.

And just think of it -- she could have held court on a special Home Depot fiberglass stepladder set up in the middle of a white food tent with the Sternos keeping the wine-broasted filet minion and wieners warm and speak of all things un-Worldlike that have crept into our New World Order discourse.

You know, things like liberty and freedom and rugged individualism.

By Jove, from her Fifth Column fifth step, she even could have kept an eagle eye on husband John, chatting it up with French first lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy by the galvanized steel tubs filled with Keystone beer and a little fish tank aerator to make pretty bubbles.

And what a moment it would be when, in the perfect turn of the screw, Mrs. Sarkozy mouths to the evil-eyed Mrs. Heinz the phrase "Poussez-le." ...

Speaking of pushing it (ahem), the Pennsylvania Legislature, egged on by Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, appears to be hellbent on creating a constitutional crisis.

Should a moratorium on reassessments become law -- a measure passed by the full House and the Senate Finance Committee, and one clearly sought by Mr. Onorato and Democrats loyal to his cause (becoming governor) -- "the principle effect ...