man looking to knock off a five-term senator in a primary election needs a lucky break or two.

That's why we think U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak should send Rush Limbaugh a nice box of cigars.

Sestak, a retired admiral, went on Fox News last week to defend the Obama administration's decision to try terrorism cases in New York City. Sestak told Fox News that accused terrorists have been tortured but that other evidence not obtained from suspects that way could be used to secure convictions in court.

Limbaugh quickly took to the air to accuse Sestak of portraying America as the bad guys and terrorists as victims in an "internal assault on the fabric, the traditions, the institutions that have made this country great."

Sestak, who hopes to unseat Republican-turned-Democrat U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in May's primary, sent out an e-mail to supporters and the media, making sure everyone knew he'd been lambasted by Limbaugh.

Sestak told us he was trying to draw a distinction with Specter on the issue of terrorism trials.

We imagine it also doesn't hurt with Sestak's name recognition and fundraising as he pushes for Democratic-primary voters to compare his liberal credentials to Specter's long record.

We wondered if Sestak, who posts video of his Fox News appearances on his campaign Web site, would ever call Limbaugh's show to debate the issue.

Turns out, he nearly did. Sestak told us his staff found Limbaugh's phone number but he hesitated at the last minute, not wanting to make "too much political fodder" out of a serious issue.

But would Sestak go on the radio if Limbaugh invited him?

"In a heartbeat," he told us.

A Palin tale of 2 T-shirts

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin starts chapter 11 of her new best-selling memoir, "Going Rogue," with this account of how fans and foes greeted her in Philadelphia during last year's presidential campaign:

"I love Philadelphia, its energy, its history. It's also the city where a supporter gave me a very cool T-shirt that said Saracuda, which I wore to a rambunctious meet-and-greet organized in a Philly bar.

"But a few people in the City of Brotherly Love weren't the most loving on that trip. During a motorcade ride, my children looked out the window of the Suburban and saw people wearing T-shirts that said lovely things like Sarah Palin is a c- - -.

"Willow was astonished. 'Mom, did you see that?'

" 'Don't worry about it,' was all I could muster."

'Ghost employees' & real work

It's not easy to find the happy story in the 188-page grand-jury presentment that led last week to charges against state Rep. John Perzel and nine other Republicans. But Clout dug deep and discovered it on page 143, in a section describing "ghost employees."

Meet Susan Cornell, a former state representative looking for a job that actually involved work.

Cornell, who lost her Montgomery County seat in a 2006 primary election, asked Perzel for a job.

According to the presentment:

Perzel, then House speaker, found Cornell a spot on state Rep. George Kenney's payroll.

Cornell was paid for six weeks, but did no work and never showed up at Kenney's office. Uncomfortable with that, Cornell again asked Perzel for help.

Perzel sent Cornell to Vince Fenerty, executive director of the Philadelphia Parking Authority, who created a job for her.

That went better, but not at first, since Cornell "initially found it difficult to find anything to do."

Cornell, hired as a government-relations manager, was able to pull together enough work "so that her newly created position evolved into a legitimate job."

Cornell, paid $67,894 per year by the PPA to do that job along with customer-service- manager duties, declined to comment.

Kenney, who left the House last year and now works for Temple University Health System, this week said someone - he never tried to find out who - briefly put Cornell on the payroll of a committee of which he was chairman but whose hiring he did not control. PPA spokeswoman Linda Miller said that her agency hired Cornell to help monitor legislation being considered in Harrisburg and later added the customer-service duties, because "that was an area where we needed some help."

Quotable:

"Whatever the criticism may be, and I understand it and I acknowledge it . . . the number one comment I get is, 'Mayor, you're doing a very tough job at the worst possible time and I know you're doing the best that you can.' "

- Mayor Nutter, reflecting this week as he nears the midway mark on his term.