Good Friday morning. The Red Sox blew a 5-1 lead yesterday to fall to the Dodgers in Spring Training action in Florida. The important lesson: Red Sox Nation can be depressing. Politics Nation never is. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement later today, but before that, here's what Washington is watching today:

-- The Senate meets this morning to dispense with morning business, though no roll call votes will be taken. The House is out of session. President Bush heads to the Pentagon today to receive Defense Department briefings after meeting with Cuban refugees at the White House. And a day after a man shot up an Israeli school, killing eight, two pro-Palestinian groups will protest Israel's actions in Gaza at the Israeli Embassy.

-- On the trail, no one is getting more attention than Howard Dean, Jennifer Granholm and Charlie Crist. New developments out of both Florida and Michigan broke rapidly yesterday, as both states seem to be on the path toward holding new electoral contests. No matter that both governors are calling on the DNC chair to seat their delegates, Dean has said the DNC rules will hold firm. In fact, even if he wanted to, Dean couldn't bend the rules to allow Florida's or Michigan's delegations to find seats in Denver. Both states can still take their chances with the DNC's credentials committee, but today, revotes of some kind seem much more likely.

-- A DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee member told TNR that Michigan will hold a new set of caucuses, plans for which will be announced in the next few days. Michiganders will have at least something of an easier time getting the plan by the RBC: State party chair Mark Brewer is a member of the panel and cast one of the votes that stripped Florida of its delegation.

-- The Sunshine State's senior Democrat, meanwhile, got a little straightening out from the DNC chief yesterday. A source says Dean and Florida Senator Bill Nelson spoke last night, and Dean, who had offered to pay for a primary inside the DNC-approved window, informed Nelson that that particular offer is no longer on the table. Dean told Nelson his state's party can raise soft money, under McCain-Feingold, to hold its own primary, though before an additional contest is held, Florida has to resubmit its plans to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee, members of which we're sure thought they were finished with all this calendar madness months ago.

-- But there are still contests to come, still voters to woo and battles to be fought. Barack Obama got an unwelcome surprise yesterday when top foreign policy adviser Samantha Power told The Scotsman that rival Hillary Clinton is "a monster." That's not the kind of statement that keeps a campaign on-message for long, and sure enough, Power had to offer a retraction, ABC's Jake Tapper reports, and Obama spokesman Bill Burton had to disavow them as well. Still, the comments led some cable news coverage this morning.

-- Voters head to caucuses tomorrow in Wyoming, where Democrats will select twelve convention delegates. Obama has to be considered the early favorite, as he has consistently done well in caucus states, but Clinton's team has put in more than just a little bit of effort there. Their victory in Ohio came from an organization, and should they somehow pull off establishing an organization by tomorrow, it would boost morale even further heading into Pennsylvania's primary a mere seven weeks away.

-- John McCain is happily lost in all this nonsense. As the GOP nominee zips around to scoop up money and start hitting general election media markets, he's also taking care of housekeeping business over at the Republican National Committee, Jonathan Martin reports. Joining chairman Mike Duncan will be three McCain loyalists and the party's former political director, now a McCain ally. Constant cable television surrogate Frank Donatelli will serve as deputy chairman, while ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina will run voter contact and New Jersey financier and GOP bigwig Lew Eisenberg, one of McCain's national finance chairs, will raise money for the program. Former Giuliani campaign manager Mike DuHaime -- the ex-political director -- will return to the committee in a political role.

-- Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are getting ambitious, and while the presidential contest rages on, some at least are still considering a magic number 60 doable. The renewed optimism comes, the New York Times' David Herszenhorn writes, as Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich looks set to challenge Ted Stevens in Alaska, with no signs that Stevens, under investigation, has any plans to back away from the race. But to get to 60, Democrats have to take out some entrenched incumbents, suggesting even Oklahoma's Jim Inhofe is vulnerable, and win in deep-red territory, likely by targeting Mississippi's Roger Wicker. Possible? Certainly. But it would take a wave bigger than that in 2006, when the party couldn't pick up Tennessee, to win over even more Republican states.

-- Calendar Craziness Of The Day: Puerto Rico, seemingly unable to take the pressure of being the last primary election contest, will hold primaries instead of caucuses, DemConWatch reports, and will hold those primaries on June 1. The territory was originally scheduled to hold their caucuses on June 7, but moved them forward in order to accommodate what DNC member Kenneth McClintock said he expected to be "hundreds of thousands" of Democratic voters turning out. That means primaries in which Montana and South Dakota voters cast ballots on June 3 will be the final contests. So far. Florida and Michigan still have until June 10 to make it inside the DNC's approved window.

-- Today On The Trail: Obama has town hall meetings in Casper and Laramie, Wyoming (which we incorrectly said he was holding yesterday, our error), while Clinton hits Hattiesburg, Mississippi, before heading to Cheyenne and Casper in advance of Saturday's caucuses. McCain is spending his day in Atlanta, Georgia.