A rather titillating but unshocking report from the Washington Post that Eric Massa's conduct was much worse than he let on.

A brief interview with President Bush's former Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, in the new issue of Princeton Alumni Weekly. Some interesting tidbits:

On misconceptions about President Bush: "One is that he is extremely bright and curious. Another is that he was very keen to hear disagreeing points of view. He would rarely make a decision until all the key players had had their say."

On the rancorous tone in Washington: "I think President Bush would agree that one of our biggest disappointments was our collective inability to improve the tone of political discourse. But I feel strongly that he was not personally to blame for the deterioration in the tone. He could be tough and occasionally ideological, but he was always civil and ­courteous toward his adversaries, even though that was not always reciprocated."

On Rahm Emanuel: "I always liked working with him because, even though he is not a gentle soul, he is a straight shooter and very smart."

On how the Obama Administration is doing so far: "I think they have tried to do too much and, as is often the case, they may have misjudged the meaning of their election victory. Sometimes, even if the public is enthusiastic about a candidate, it is not necessarily equally enthusiastic about all of the candidate's agenda."

Consumer Reports on Lexus GX460: "Don't Buy."

North Carolina Democrats head to the polls in just three weeks to choose a candidate to face Sen. Richard Burr (R) this fall. The national party has long considered Burr vulnerable, but failed to recruit a top tier candidate. A new Public Policy Polling (D) survey shows nearly half of Tarheel State Democrats still undecided about the candidates who are running, led by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and state Sen. Cal Cunningham.

Democratic Primary Election Matchup
(401 LVs, 4/8-11, MoE +/- 4.9%)
Marshall 23 (+3 vs. last poll, 3/12-15)
Cunningham 17 (+1)
Lewis 9 (-2)
Other 5 (-1)
Und 45 (-2)

Marshall appears to be the most well-known candidate, with a 32 percent favorable rating. A whopping 85 percent of voters had no strong view of Cunningham, but he's looking to boost him name ID in the stretch run. His campaign launched this ad, its first, in a limited buy this week.

On the Republican side, PPP finds Burr safely ahead of token opposition, with 67 percent of the vote.

A new SurveyUSA poll in Kentucky shows a tightening Democratic race one month before the primary between Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo and Attorney General Jack Conway.

Democratic Primary Election Matchups
(659 LVs, 4/9-11, MoE +/- 3.9%)
Mongiardo 35 (-10 vs. last poll, 3/1-3)
Conway 32 (+5)
Other 11 (+2)
Und 21 (+2)

The Republican primary is little changed, with Rand Paul holding his lead over Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

Republican Primary Election Matchups
(446 LVs, 3/1-3, MoE +/- 4.7%)
Paul 45 (+3)
Grayson 30 (+3)
Other 11 (-5)
Und 19 (unch)

In a generic ballot test for the general election, 44 percent of voters say they'll choose the Republican candidate while 41 percent say they'd choose a Democrat. In March, the outcome was 43-42 in favor of Republicans.

Strapped with a 74% job approval rating, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo continues to dominate the gubernatorial field in general election matchups, a new Quinnipiac survey finds (April 6-11, 1381 RV, MoE +/- 2.6%). Republicans running include former Rep. Rick Lazio, businessman Carl Paladino and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy.

Gov Primary
Lazio 34
Paladino 11
Levy 11
Und 40

Gov General
Cuomo 55 (-2 vs. last poll, Feb. 3)
Lazio 26 (+1)
Und 15

Cuomo 60
Paladino 24
Und 14

Cuomo 57
Levy 24
Und 15

RCP ranks this race Likely Democrat.

Meanwhile, in the race for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's seat, former Gov. George Pataki continues to lead the Republican primary and Gillibrand in a general election matchup. However, few believe he will actuallly run. So keep an eye on Blakeman and watch for someone else who may come out of nowhere.

Gillibrand has a 47% job approval rating -- her highest yet -- with just 25% disapproving and 29% unsure.

Senate Primary
Pataki 64
Blakeman 15
Und 19

Senate General
Gillibrand 47 (+3 vs. last poll, Feb. 3)
Blakeman 25 (-2)
Und 24

Pataki 45
Gillibrand 40
Und 13

RCP currently ranks this race Likely Democrat on the new Battle for the Senate map.

Sorry for the absence on Friday. I'll be paying the price today.

President:

During the '04 campaign the joke was “nothing moves Rasmussen's Robots,” referring to the uncanny stability the Rasmussen polling showed, while other pollsters' numbers moved around wildly. This is beginning to show up in the tracking poll. The Rasmussen tracking poll seems to be reintroducing this feature, having shown the President with either 47% or 48% approval ratings for the past seven days.

Gallup, on the other hand, has seen a substantial dropoff in the President's approval rating. On Sunday he clocked in at 45% approve/48% disapprove, and he stayed at that level today. His weekly job approval was 47%, the lowest to date.

While Rasmussen has showed stability in the past few months, Gallup has shown a gradual decline. It may well be that even as adults as a whole were becoming less enamored with the President, those who liked the President became more energized, and hence began to make it through Rasmussen's likely voter screen.

Senate

Florida Senate: Rasmussen shows Marco Rubio leading Charlie Crist 60%-26%. It's a long way to September, but it is increasingly difficult to see how Crist even makes this race competitive.

Illinois Senate: Rasmussen Reports shows Mark Kirk leading Alexi Giannoulias by four points now. The last Rasmussen poll had Giannoulias up by three. Obviously, Giannoulias has taken a hit in the polling after a raft of unpleasant stories about his families' business affairs, though it is worth noting that Kirk's numbers didn't improve at all; Giannoulias' merely dropped. Kirk leads by .3 in the RCP average.

New Hampshire Senate: New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte leads Congressman Paul Hodes 50%-35%, according to Rasmussen. Ayotte's two conservative primary challengers likewise lead Hodes, though by smaller margins: Ovide Lamontagne leads 44%-39%, while Bill Binnie leads 49%-37%. Overall, New Hampshire seems primed to put a Republican in the Senate. The question is whether the Republicans nominate someone who is too conservative for the state to stomach, or whether the state really cares this cycle.

Ayotte leads Hodes by 10 in the RCP average, and hasn't trailed Hodes in a single poll this cycle.

Pennsylvania Senate: Morning Call finds a continued spate of bad polling for Senator Arlen Specter. He trails Pat Toomey 47%-40% among likely voters. Over half of the Commonwealth's voters have an unfavorable opinion of the Senator, which is obviously difficult for Specter to overcome. Toomey is also leading Specter 2:1 among Independents. Toomey also leads Congressman Joe Sestak 33%-22%.

Ohio Senate: Research 2000 and the Daily Kos polled the Ohio Senate race, and found Lee Fisher leading Republican Rob Portman 43%-39%. The other Democrat in the race, Jennifer Brunner (for information on the Democratic primary and their candidates, see below) leads Portman by a point, 41%-40%.

Of course, Research 2000 envisions an electorate that is 12% black, 38% Democrat, 35% Republican and 27% Independent. In 2008, the electorate was 11% black, 39% Democrat, 31% Republican and 30% Independent. I think it is highly unlikely that black turnout will be higher than it was in 2008, and I don't think that Democrats will only be 1 point less of the electorate than in 2008. If you assume that the electorate will probably look a lot more like 2004, the R2K result looks a lot more like the Rasmussen result. Portman leads by 1.5 in the RCP average.

Ohio Senate Primary: R2K also polled the upcoming primary between Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Fisher tabulated 35% of the vote, while Brunner came in with 26%. The primary is only three weeks away, so it is kind of odd to see “undecided” winning a plurality of the vote.

Washington Senate: Patty Murray continues to poll poorly. Rasmussen reports that she leads gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi 48%-46%, and State Senator Don Benton 48%-40%. Obviously it is not good news for Murray to be below 50%, but Rossi has run statewide twice in the last six years. Cantwell-McGavick race from a few years ago comes to mind, when McGavick was close to Cantwell for most of the race before undecideds broke heavily her way. Of course, Rossi probably doesn't have issues to publicly apologize for, and 2010 doesn't much look like 2006. Murray leads Rossi by 3.7 in the RCP average.

Governor

Nevada Governor: Mason-Dixon found that former federal judge Brian Sandoval would trounce Rory Reid 50%-35%. Sandoval has led Reid by double digits in every poll this cycle. In the event that scandal-tarred incumbent Jim Gibbons wins the nomination, he would be close to Reid, trailing by 42%-40%.

Nevada Gubernatorial Primary: Fortunately for Republicans, it doesn't appear likely that Gibbons will emerge the victor. Mason-Dixon also found Sandvoal leading Gibbons in the primary 39%-25%, with former North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon bringing up the rear with 7% of the vote. Gibbons ended last year with only $35,000 in the bank, compared to $1 million for Sandoval. The primary is June 8, which really doesn't give Gibbons much time to close the gap.

Ohio Governor: R2k shows Ted Strickland leading former Congressman John Kasich by five points, 45%-40%, which was essentially what they found the last time they polled the race last July. Strickland has hammered Kasich over his ties to Lehman Brothers, and most recent polling has shown a dip in Kasich's numbers. We'll see if this can get Strickland through to November. The Governor leads by 1 in the RCP average.

Pennsylvania Governor: Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett continues to lead all of his potential Democratic opponents by large margins, according to Muhlenberg. None of the Democrats gets above 20% of the vote, which probably has more to do with their low name recognition than anything else. The primary is in a month, May 18, 2010.

House

A few House polls to report on today. Mason Dixon polled Nevada's Third Congressional district, where Dina Titus knocked off Congressman Jon Porter by a narrow margin in a marginally Democratic district. Mason Dixon finds Titus trailing former State Senator Joe Heck 49%-44%. This is just the latest bad news for Democratic incumbents, almost none of whom have received good polling news all cycle.

Muhlenberg did a generic ballot test for Pennsylvania, and found Republicans and Democrats in a dead heat, at 41%R/40%D. This is actually quite bad news for Democrats. The most loyal Democratic voters are stuffed into the D+35 First District, the D+38 Second District, and the D+19 Fourteenth District. Republicans only have one comparable district, the R+17 Ninth. That means that among the remaining districts, Republicans probably have a 2 or 3 point edge on average, enough to put them in strong contention in all but a handful of districts.

Finally, in the May 22 special election to replace outgoing Congressman Neil Abercrombie, the DCCC claims that Republican Charles Djou is tied with former Congressman Ed Case with 32% of the vote, with Colleen Hanabusa at 27%. Since it is a winner-take-all primary, if Djou can come out even a point ahead of Case or Hanabusa, he would win the D+11 seat.

Miscellany:

Rasmussen's weekly assessment of the health care law finds opposition at an all-time high. 58% oppose the law, while 38% support it. Obviously, the health care bounce that many anticipated has yet to arrive.

A new Rasmussen poll finds Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal still up double digits over both Republican opponents, but his huge leads from last month have been whittled down some.

Blumenthal led ex-WWE executive Linda McMahon by 29 points in a poll last month, and was up 26 points against ex-Rep. Rob Simmons. Businessman Peter Schiff, who's also running, continues to trail by a large margin.

This month, Blumenthal remains above 50% while the Republicans continue to hover in the 30s.

Blumenthal 52 (-6 vs. last poll, March 2)
Simmons 38 (+6)
Und 6

Blumenthal 55 (-5)
McMahon 35 (+4)
Und 6

RCP currently ranks this race as Safe Democrat.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, who spoke at last weekend's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, leads Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon by 16 points in his re-election bid, a new Rasmussen survey finds (April 7, 500 LV, MoE +/- 4.5%).

The poll actually represents a shrinking by one-third of Vitter's 24-point lead in February. Two-thirds of Lousiana voters are in favor of repealing national health care reform, which both Vitter and Melancon voted against.

Vitter 52 (-5 vs. last poll, Feb. 10)
Melancon 36 (+3)
Und 8

Vitter now leads by 13.3 points in the RCP Average. RCP currently ranks the race as Likely Republican.

Gov. Charlie Crist (R), slipping further behind Marco Rubio in the Florida Senate primary, has launched a tough new attack ad that links his rival with another Florida Republican involved in scandal.

The ad suggests Rubio is involved in that "unfolding" scandal, noting he was "subpoenaed." The key line that the Crist campaign wants GOP voters to ponder: "Rubio: It's not just what we know. It's what we don't know -- yet."