Reviews of Rick Santorum's debate performance last night are tepid: "missed opportunity" (LA Times/ABC News), and "uneven" (Boston Globe). Ron Paul fans were even mad that he seemed to shake the congressman's hand too hard (Buzzfeed)

More worrying is his stance with women voters -- for the first time, a poll in Arizona showed a widening gender gap, with women supporting Mitt Romney over him 2:1. (NYT) And lets not even get into the breakup he seems to have had with one of his most strenuous supporters this campaign, the WashPost's Jennifer Rubin.

But on to better news for Santorum fans: despite worries about his general election chances, his position against Obama is improving nationwide in the latest Gallup tracking poll (he trails the prez by a statistically irrelevant 1 point, 49-48%), and in Michigan he leads Romney by 4 points in today's American Research Group survey.

Santorum (and the National Review) have been complaining that the MSM is focusing too much on the ex-senator's religious beliefs. But he is certainly trying to use those beliefs to his advantage: a God-fearin' friend of Early Returns who is reading a Bible chapter every day of Lent reported a Santorum For President ad popped up with the Book of Genesis on Bartleby.com.

Looks like he'll spend much of the weekend before Super Tuesday, March 6, in Ohio, the Plain Dealer reports. But until then, all eyes remain on Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday. Team Santorum is going negative on Romney in his home state in the (low-budget) ad below:

Ad text after the jump:

The Commonwealth Court hearing on the Critz campaign's challenge of fellow Democrat Jason Altmire's 12th congressional district nomination petitions has been set: it will be held in Pittsburgh at 9:30 a.m., Friday, March 2, in the court's chamber on Grant Street.

The Altmire campaign has said nothing about the suit since issuing a no-comment Tuesday night.

UPDATE 1:20 PM: Altmire's campaign manager Angela Ruslander released a statement calling the petition challenge "a desperate attack from a desperate campaign" and "a despicable act."

In full:

"After reviewing the baseless challenge to my campaign's nominating petitions, the facts are as clear today as they were when the petitions were filed -- we have met the required threshold of 1000 valid signatures to appear on the primary ballot. We knew this when my campaign filed the petitions, and we know it now after reviewing the politically motivated complaint filed by my challenger from Johnstown.

Make no mistake, this challenge is a desperate attack from a desperate campaign. Trailing by double-digits even in his own polling and at 2-1 disadvantage in campaign funding, Mark Critz has now lowered himself to try to win an election by invalidating the legitimate signatures of voters, including many of his own current constituents. This is a despicable act designed to disenfranchise the new 12th district voters by denying them the opportunity to simply have a choice on the ballot."

UPDATE 3PM: Critz campaign manager Mike Mikus responds:

“The problem with Washington is that too many politicians like Jason Altmire have a sense of entitlement. Everyone knows the rules to get on the ballot and those rules even apply to Members of Congress like Jason Altmire.

The evidence shows that petitions were likely forged and petitions were circulated by ineligible circulators, among other violations. Instead of issuing over the top public statements, perhaps Congressman Altmire should be explaining why his campaign failed to follow the law.”

Here's Laura Olson's full story on the latest delay in producing new state House and Senate maps.

Which reminds us, Democrats are trying to move fast in their state Supreme Court suit trying to force the House Speaker to call special elections for six vacant House seats (under 2001 lines).

Just hours after House Speaker Sam Smith's lawyers filed their response in opposition to the suit, lawyers in Philadelphia swiftly filed an answer -- the 60-day deadline needed to call elections before the April 24 primary is tomorrow, after all.

The state Constitution -- and the court's King's Bench powers -- should override any statutory authority allowing Smith to hold off calling elections until new maps are approved, the Democratic response says. It's below:

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Here's a better PR idea for VisitPittsburgh -- Brian O'Neill sifts through the Liquor Control Board's latest sales statistics and finds Allegheny County atop many of the state's sales categories:

• Vodka outsells every other spirit in Pennsylvania. That's also true in Allegheny County, but the region that launched the Whiskey Rebellion hasn't entirely forgotten its roots. The lip-smacking liquid legacy of our Scots-Irish ancestors still flows most freely here. No other county dropped more money on whiskey than Allegheny ($29.5 million), and Greene County is where it represents the highest percentage of sales (29 percent).

• That said, Pittsburgh isn't just a shot-and-beer town anymore. No county sells more table wine than Allegheny (almost $82 million worth), and Pittsburghers go for box wine the way they used to go for box springs at the Kaufmann's warehouse sales. Allegheny County bought $9.3 million worth of box wine, and Philadelphia only $5 million.