Arlen Specter

Bill Clinton's had an awfully good week.

First, Al Gore gets embarrassed by Masseuse-gate.

The Washington Post calls out the White House over its refusal to elaborate on Representative Joe Sestak's claim he was offered a job by the administration in return for backing out of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary. The editorial reads, in part:

How did big labor do in Tuesday's election? Not well, in two words. So poorly, indeed, that even the New York Times picked up on this angle: "On the Democratic side, organized labor, which invested millions into the races in Pennsylvania and Arkansas, did not achieve a victory in either state," the paper reported.

Well, Rand Paul trounced Trey Grayson, Mark Critz beat Tim Burns, and Joe Sestak defeated the longest-serving senator in Pennsylvania history, while Blanche Lincoln will face Bill Halter in a runoff election. Are these races connected? The first law of punditry says you have to find a theme. But every time I go searching for a theme, I come up short.

Remember when President Obama assured nervous Democrats that "the big difference here and in '94 was you've got me"? Oops. In the last few months Obama worked to get four high-profile Democrats elected: Creigh Deeds, Jon Corzine, Martha Coakley, and Arlen Specter. Each of them lost, by an average of 8.5 points.

Arlen Specter abandoned the GOP when it was convenient for him to do so, and now the Democratic White House is showing Specter it can play that game, too.

The latest from Quinnipiac:

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak continues his stretch run in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate primary and now trails incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter by a too-close-to-call 44 - 42 percent among likely Democratic primary voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Rasmussen showed Sestak leading Specter 47% to 42% last week.

Poor Arlen Specter. After a poll showed him trailing Democratic primary challenger Joe Sestak by 5 points, President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan couldn't have come at a worse time. In 2009, Specter voted against Kagan's confirmation to be solicitor general. With Kagan in the news in the week preceding the May 18 primary, Sestak should be able to use this vote to his advantage.

Barack Obama beat John McCain in Pennsylvania by 11 points (55% to 44%) in 2008. A new poll by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling shows Obama's approval rating in the Keystone state at 46%, with 50% of voters disapproving.

Only 42% of voters say they support "President Obama’s health care plan," and 49% oppose it.

Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey leads Democrat Arlen Specter 46% to 43%.

In case you missed it, be sure to listen to this radio clip from a local Pennsylvania show, in which Senator Arlen Specter gets testy with Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. Specter accuses Bachmann of interrupting him and says “I am going to treat you like a lady, so act like one.”

In an interview with the Pittsburgh newspaper, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), Arlen Specter's opponent in the Democratic primary, blamed Democrats for the plummeting popularity of the health-care bill.