In doing so, Rendell stood up for the best smoke-free law that Pennsylvania likely will ever see - one that protects 1.4 million Philadelphians and countless visitors to the state's largest city.

At the same time, Rendell kept alive the hope that Pittsburgh and other communities will be free to enact stronger local safeguards as opposed to the lame measure proposed in Harrisburg.

The governor's veto threat on Monday came not a moment too soon. A joint House and Senate committee was prepared to push a statewide law that would preempt the city's successful, year-old rules.

The proposal floated by Sen. Charles T. McIlhinney Jr. (R., Bucks) would bar local communities from enacting smoke-free ordinances. While smoking would be banned statewide in restaurants and most workplaces, the McIlhinney measure would exempt private clubs and casinos from the smoking ban.

So McIlhinney would undo safeguards already established in Philadelphia, while leaving thousands of hospitality workers and patrons across the state at risk from secondhand smoke. Significantly, it would free the city's two planned casinos to allow smoking where it's now banned.

As the legislature has fiddled for months over a smoke-free law, it has become clear that the General Assembly leaders' main interest is doing the bidding of cigarette companies - not protecting public health. They've even tried to justify lax, one-size-fits-all statewide standards on grounds that smokers would be confused if one town had tougher rules than the next. That's absurd.

Of course, there's an easy way to pass a real statewide smoke-law: Just copy the city's law.

The governor has sounded the alarm. Now, Mayor Nutter should join him and others like Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.) in rallying the city's Harrisburg delegation to not only protect Philadelphia's smoke-free law, but make it the state model.