Blanche Lincoln's plan to force banks to spin off their derivatives desks has garnered enemies all around in Washington. And it seems all but certain to get defanged or revised in some major way. But Lincoln's been flogging it like crazy back home in Arkansas as an example of her populist cred. Indeed, it seems pretty likely that that's the reason she -- quite unexpectedly -- came forward with such an uncharacteristically left-populist leaning proposal in the first place. But Senate Dems and the White House don't want to trip her up in her primary on Tuesday. So it seems they're delaying any changes until after the election is over.

You might not have thought a Supreme Court nomination would have much to do with a Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. But the Kagan nomination has come at the worst possible time for Arlen Specter and could provide Sestak with the lever to pry him out of the Senate.

Longtime TPM Reader JB says it's not looking good for Specter ...

I am in Pittsburgh for 24 hours for a meeting. While watching TV intermittently, I have seen a wide variety of commercials from both candidates, which provide some good insight into this race. Based on these ads, I think Specter is toast.

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Who's more likely to be gay? Unmarried, middle-aged woman or televangelist / family values pol? Discuss.

It's (Blanche) Lincoln to the rescue, says Robert Reich.

Arlen Specter has a very awkward moment when Chris Matthews grills him on his presidential voting record. Watch it.

A few of you have asked why we haven't yet picked up this story. What's the story? Gov. Mark Sanford spent the weekend with his one-time and perhaps future lover Maria Belen Chapur. This time it was in Florida, not Argentina, and Sanford made sure his staff and state authorities knew where he was.

I must say I've always found this the most endearing and humanizing part of the Sanford story. There was a lot of irresponsibility, juvenile conduct and 'man waking up at 50 and realizing he wasn't living his own life' to Sanford's high-profile self-immolation. (You can grow up before you're nearly grown up at all and realize when you're well into the second half of life that you're still a kid living someone else's life entirely.) But most pols who get caught with a mistress quickly retreat to saying the whole thing was shameful and a terrible lapse of judgment or perhaps that they need therapy for sex addiction (who doesn't?) or whatever else. Sanford could never really bring himself to say that, though, because I just don't think he thought it was true. Sometimes comically but almost always to his political detriment, he simply couldn't resist saying that he loved Chapur very deeply, even memorably and repeatedly (and perhaps bizarrely) calling her his 'soulmate' while, rather incongruously, trying to salvage his own marriage.

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Right-leaning 'milbloggers' come out in support of ending 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

See the first clip of the Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame movie with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.

Before Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed the state's now notorious immigration bill there seemed to be at least some question about whether she'd sign the bill. But she now seems to have decided to go all in with the anti-immigrant fervor sweeping the state. Brewer yesterday signed a new bill restricting 'ethnic studies' classes in state schools, particularly banning any curriculum which teaches students "to resent or hate other races or classes of people."

The law is apparently targeted at the Mexican-American studies program in the Tucson Unified School District which the law's proponents claim teaches Latino students to believe they're oppressed by white people.

Survivors from the exploded oil rig out in the Gulf arrive on shore after 27 hours on a rescue boat. Transocean, the owner of the rig, takes them to a hotel in New Orleans. Want to leave the hotel? All you have to do is sign this little form saying you haven't been injured and didn't see anything wrong that might have caused the accident. That's what some of the rescuees are now claiming.

Is Harry Reid back in this thing? A new poll (albeit one from a Dem firm) shows Reid now ahead of Sue Lowden in the aftermath of chicken-gate.

I'll wait to see the next Rasmussen poll. If he shows Reid even in shooting distance I'm thinking Lowden may be toast.

Sarah Palin's second book due out in November.

George Alan Reker's announces his resignation from the National Association of Research and Therapy of of Homosexuality, the "ex-gay" organization.

It's almost word for word like Larry Craig. Genuinely sad. Pathological on many levels. But sad on so many levels of human suffering, with Rekers as both victim and victimizer.

For years we've been chronicling various conservative direct mail operations that get right-wingers ginned up to send in money because the UN is going to confiscate their lawn furniture or force their daughters to have mandatory abortions. But once they have the money, virtually all of it goes back to the direct mail operators rather than giving it to Republican candidates or agitprop or anything else. So if you're an easily agitated conservative who wants to make sure you contributions are actually going into political work rather than lining someone's pockets, we've devised this special 'Winger Survival Guide for the 2010 season.