Over at the big house on Broad Street (well, actually, over on the other side of the Capitol Press Room) Jon Lender highlights something I neglected to in our new stories about Jodi Rell's pollster of choice, UConn professor Ken Dautrich.

Namely, that while the real news is that Dautrich and Rell's closest aides have been talking about polling a whole lot more frequently than Rell has been suggesting, they also spend a sizable portion of their time talking about gin and tonics.

The conversation between chief of staff Lisa Moody and Dautrich about Rell's poll numbers - they were happy with them - ends with a cheery instruction from the chief of staff to the prof to hoist another cocktail to the governor's continued popularity.

In a similar vein, some observers may be intrigued by the exchange in which Dautrich, having already arranged one poll for Rell's political committee at an apparently steep discount, offers to do the same thing again mid-summer, to see how Rell's budget standoff with Democrats is affecting her approval rating. But Moody's focus is, naturally, on the brand of spirit the pollster will be enjoying come sundown at his house in Narragansett, R.I.

Tanqueray? Moody inquires.

Tanqueray-10, Dautrich clarifies. (Unlike the governor's office when they're purchasing political polls, Dautrich is apparently easy to up-sell.)

Finally, years after the fundraising controversy that landed Moody in ethical hot water, the gossiping mouths of greater Hartford have a new one to chew on. Not a new scandal; a new catch-phrase.

Pressuring your appointed ethics czar to give money to the governor's campaign is such a gloomy and mid-decade thing to celebrate in snark. Better to encourage festive drinking, and the poll numbers be damned.

Move over, "Pony up, czarina." Make room for "Have another G + T."