Good political connections can get you out of just about anything these days. (Unless your last name is Delay.)

Two days after he was sentenced for smuggling classified documents from the National Archives, former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger violated his probation when he was ticketed for reckless driving in Fairfax County, according to court officials and records.

Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson admonished Berger yesterday for the traffic charge during a brief hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia but left him on probation as recommended by the federal probation office, according to court records.

Berger was clocked going 88 mph in a 55-mph zone while driving eastbound on Interstate 66 in Fairfax on Sept. 10, according to court records. Berger told court officers that "he was speeding because he was late to a meeting, and he was not aware of how fast he was traveling," according to a probation violation report filed in federal court.