Specter may be haunted by exchange with Bachmann

Onetime Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, whose jump over to the Democratic Party last year turned his name into a political verb for switching sides whenever it’s convenient, may have stepped in something messy last week.

The 80-year-old new Democrat, who’s seeking a sixth term but facing a defiant primary challenge from combative Rep. Joe Sestak, was on a Philadelphia radio station debating Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Normally the, uh, outspoken Bachmann, a “tea party” fave, would be a perfect foil for a Democrat like Specter.

Bachmann was going on and on about killing “ObamaCare” and cutting taxes and common-sense conservatism. Hey, you talk till the ref blows the whistle.

And WPHT’s Dom Giordano was enjoying the flap, as radio hosts are wont to do.

Until Specter uttered those paralyzingly poisonous patronizing words in modern politics: “I’m going to treat you like a lady. Now act like one!”

You can hear the entire exchange over at RealClearPolitics.

As part of Specter’s spectering, President Obama promised to campaign for him no matter what this fall, a promise proving of dubious worth if past performances are accurate indicators.

As The Ticket reported last week, Obama is 0-7 in campaign rallies for Democratic candidates, including most recently Martha Coakley, who lost the Massachusetts Senate race to Republican Scott Brown.

Obama’s campaigning presumes that Specter, the onetime 60th Democratic-controlled Senate vote, survives the state primary. A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Specter increasing his double-digit lead over Sestak.

Unfortunately for Specter, an even newer Rasmussen Reports poll shows him trailing conservative Republican Pat Toomey in a general election matchup by 9 points, twice the lead Toomey had a month ago. Toomey’s emerging GOP strength in the Keystone State was a major reason for Specter’s specter in April.

Do you think Toomey will invite Bachmann to campaign for him come fall?

White House on your iPhone

President Obama has garnered copious “props” and “daps” from the young, hip technology community. Thanks in no small part to his administration’s Web 2.0-friendly WhiteHouse.gov, accompanied by a blog and live video streams.

The White House (or the White Hizzle, as the kids are maybe calling it these days) got on another cool tech bandwagon this week with the launch of an official iPhone application.

The White House app can be downloaded on iTunes or through the App Store on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The software provides mobile users a direct portal to the White House Blog and the various multimedia content it puts online.

Also contained within the app is a section for live-streaming video. In a statement, the White House took the opportunity to promote the president’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday. Now there’s no excuse to miss the event. Which, by the way, The Ticket will be live-blogging.

IPhone apps are sweet, but as we know, Obama is a BlackBerry user. Addressing that crowd, the White House statement says a mobile-optimized version of the website, available to any Internet-enabled smart phone, will be unveiled at Mobile.WhiteHouse.gov “in the coming weeks.”

Why start with the iPhone if the commander in chief rocks a BlackBerry?

In a small, closed-door news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, Aneesh Chopra, Obama’s chief technology officer, said, while fidgeting with the stopwatch on his iPhone, “I mean, look at the iPhone: 5,000% growth in demand.”

andrew.malcolm@latimes.com

Mark Milian contributed to this report.

Top of the Ticket, The Times’ blog on national politics, is a blend of commentary, analysis and news. These are selections from the last week.