The blind Bustleton kid with cerebral palsy who can sing his heart out (and has, for the Philadelphia Eagles, for President Bush, for Gov. Rendell) has been a nice little local story since 2001 when he sang a rousing "Star-Spangled Banner" at the first home game of the Camden Riversharks as a tiny 8-year-old.

On Tuesday, he sings for the nation on CBS' "Early Show," which airs locally from 7 to 9 a.m. on CBS 3. This is courtesy of Clout-created celebrity Flavia Colgan, who chose Timmy as her first story for the program.

Colgan will be reporting for the "Early Show" on ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

"I'm looking for inspiring, uplifting stories about people who make a difference and/or beat the odds," said Colgan. "Timmy was perfect."

Timmy was born 3 1/2 months premature, weighing just over 1 pound, blind with cerebral palsy and other problems that required medical intervention for most of his early life.

His parents, Tim and Eileen, had one goal: To make him independent. He was the first blind student mainstreamed in the Philadelphia School District.

He loved singing early on and had a strong voice, which, coming from such a slight body, amazed people.

After singing the anthem for the Riversharks, he tried out for the Eagles. He was nervous and started a key too high. He couldn't finish. He tried again in 2003. This time it was flawless. He sang at the Eagles-Saints game, the team won. The Eagles were deluged by e-mails from fans urging them to bring the kid back.

He's sung at nine of them now, and Colgan talks with Eagles President Joe Banner about what he means to the team. She also spent a day with Timmy in class.

"He feels that he's so fortunate his disabilities are on the outside and not on the inside," Colgan said.

Besides her new gig, Colgan will continue to appear on "Larry King Live" on CNN and "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox. If you know someone who has overcome great odds and become an inspiration to others, as Timmy Kelly has, share the story with Colgan at www.citizenhunter.com.

Obama: Off the rack

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently made reference to Barack Obama's well-fitted suits and wrote that his campaign won't disclose the make, "presumably since it's not J.C. Penney."

She shoulda checked with our man John Baer. After Obama's session with the Daily News editorial board last month, Baer asked that very question.

Burberry, he said, "off the rack."

He also said that Chicago's Hart Schaffner Marx had offered to make him some suits, but he can never find time for fittings. So Burberry it is, "off the rack."

Knoll: Hollywood glamour

Those Hollywood stars of the 1930s didn't roll cheap. So maybe we shouldn't have raised an eyebrow when we saw that it cost $5,900 to pay for actor Mickey Rooney, his wife and son to attend Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll's inauguration for a second term in January 2007.

Knoll listed the payment on her financial-disclosure form for 2007 as a "gratuity" from Harrisburg-based Harsco Corp., according to the Associated Press.

Knoll is pals with Rooney, and it's common for corporations to kick in money to pay for inaugural expenses. But the number struck us as high.

Sal Sirabella, Knoll's chief of staff, explained that Knoll and Harsco's Derek Hathaway became pals with Rooney after he came here as part of a Boscov's promotion. "They said, 'Wouldn't it be nice if he could fly here for the inaugural?' " Sirabella said.

So it was done, airfare for three, car to pick him up at the airport and nice room at the Hilton for two or three nights ("He is Mickey Rooney," Sirabella said.)

And, yes, Harsco does have state contracts, for services to the Revenue and Labor & Industry departments. The state has paid $252,000 to Harsco over the last eight months, according to a state treasury spokeswoman.

Baghdad High

What do you get when you give four teenage boys high-end video cameras and tell them to record their lives?

Well, if the kids are students at Baghdad's Tariq bin Ziad High School for Boys in the middle of a war, you get a pretty good documentary.

The 90-minute documentary, which aired to favorable reviews at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, was produced from 300 hours of footage - some harrowing, some heart-breaking - by Laura Winter and Ivan O'Mahoney.

Winter once covered Washington for this newspaper, before jumping into the Iraq war for the New York Daily News.

It will be shown Aug. 4 on HBO.

Rendell plays the field

The thing about trying to pin down Gov. Rendell's preferences in an election is he winds up saying nice things about all the candidates.

So who's his choice to succeed him as guv in the 2010 election?

On Wednesday evening, Rendell helped host a fundraiser at Cuba Libre for Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham, saying, "He would be a terrific governor."

The fundraiser is for Cunningham's 2009 re-election campaign, but he's among those considering a run for governor. Cunningham, a former mayor of Bethlehem, served as Rendell's secretary of the Department of General Services for two years.

In November, the Inquirer noted that many of Rendell's friends and fundraisers were supporting Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato for governor. But Rendell's event for Cunningham could be seen as a tip toward neutrality. At least for now.

Smukler is the winner

OK, we forgot last week to say who came closest to predicting the winner and winning margin of the Pennsylvania presidential primary.

We'd asked 10 pundits to weigh in. The result was Hillary Clinton by 9.2 percent. Campaign consultant Ken Smukler wins a lunch with his prediction of Clinton by 9.

Staff writers Gar Joseph, John M. Baer, Bob Warner and Dave Davies contributed to this report.