DAY’S END ROUNDUP

by Walter Alarkon - 08/08/08 6:25 PM ET

After John Edwards (D) admitted Friday that he had an extra-marital affair, the former North Carolina senator is derided by bloggers on the right and condemned by former blogging backers on the left. Suggestions that John McCain is resorting to subliminal messages about Barack Obama in a new ad is dismissed by conservative bloggers. And online opponents of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) overhaul begin a new effort aimed at unseating the members of Congress who supported the FISA compromise.

Edwards, who made the admission in an ABC News interview, is a “coward” for lying about the affair during his presidential campaign and then revealing it in a Friday news dump on the day of the Olympics opening ceremonies, writes BarbinMD on Daily Kos. The news is disappointing for Elizabeth Edwards and his family, writes D-Day, and because it will give the right so much satisfaction, writes MyDD’s Todd Beeton. Despite the National Enquirer’s reports and photos, Edwards had to confess before his affair covered by the New York Times, a newspaper that seemed much more eager to report the alleged infidelities of John McCain, writes Don Surber.

Though Christian backers of Obama say that a McCain ad featuring references to “The One” portrays Obama as the Anti-Christ, those suggestions are nonsense, writes Ross Douthat. A Google search of McCain and the Anti-Christ turns up almost as many hits as a similar search involving Obama, writes The Corner’s Andrew Stuttaford. But the number of e-mails about Obama and the Anti-Christ on evangelical listservs suggests that the McCain campaign may be behind the connection, according to Little Green Footballs.

The new Accountability Now group will target incumbents in Congress, including Democrats, who have supported measures that infringe on Constitutional principles and civil liberties, announced Glenn Greenwald. With Democrats likely to control Congress for the foreseeable future, one of the best opportunities for citizens to end the “sludge-like caution” and unaccountability on Capitol Hill is to pressure incumbents such as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in primaries, writes Open Left’s Matt Stoller.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Edwards Admits Affair – BarbinMD, Daily Kos
The Saddest Part – D-Day
Edwards Admits To The Affair – Jim Geraghty, Campaign Spot
Edwards Acknowledges Extra-marital Affair – S. Benen, Carpetbagger
Edwards Admits Affair – Allahpundit, Hot Air
Vicki Iseman 1,170, Rielle Hunter 5 – Don Surber
Not Such a Subliminable Message – Karen Tumulty, Swampland
Obama As Anti-Christ? – Andrew Stuttaford, The Corner
Obama the Antichrist? – Ross Douthat
McCain Ad Suggests Obama is the Antichrist? – Little Green Footballs
Slightly Paranoid McCain Ad Theory of the Day – G. Sargent, TPM EC
Accountability Now/Strange Bedfellows Moneybomb – G. Greenwald
Accountability Now – Matt Stoller, Open Left
$70,000 and Counting – Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake