The John McCain campaign insisting Thursday that Barack Obama is playing the race card has bloggers debating which candidate did or didn’t bring race into the campaign. The Obama campaign hit back at McCain’s controversial ad and bloggers think the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), now scheduled for September, will have a big impact on the state’s Senate race.

The interpretation of who is or isn’t playing the race card is becoming complicated in the blogosphere. Some conservatives, like Alex Knepper at race42008, think Obama clearly wants to be attacked on race, validating the McCain camps call. Many liberals meanwhile are accusing the McCain campaign of injecting race into the campaign just by suggesting that of Obama, as Greg Sargent writes.

Obama taunted McCain for comparing him to Paris Hilton, asking the Republican presidential candidate “is that the best you can come up with?” On Call reports. Matthew Yglesias, meanwhile, thinks the celebrity line of attack against Obama is ridiculous, pointing out that McCain has made multiple appearances on Saturday Night Live and would definitely qualify as a celebrity.

A federal judge granted Stevens' request to have a trial before the election, which could cause havoc in a competitive Senate race, TPM's Andrew Tilghman writes. Daily Kos's brownsox points out that Stevens wanting to fight the charges may prevents Republicans from replacing him on the ticket if he is convicted. And Michelle Malkin, who like many conservatives wants Stevens to resign, simply writes that the longest-serving Republican senator just doesn’t know when to quit.

FROM THE BLOGS:
September Trial Date Set for Stevens - Andrew Tilghman, TPM
Is a Government Shut Down Ahead? - Capitol Briefing
Why Didn't the RNC Run the 'Celeb' Ad? - Josh Kahn, The Next Right
Celebrity Skin - Matthew Yglesias
Obama: That the Best You Can Do? - First Read
Stevens Hurries Trial to Get Reelected Pork King - Michelle Malikin
House & Senate Roundup - brownsox, Daily Kos
The Ditzy Celebrity Candidate - Mark Kilmer, RedState
Court Rejects 'Executive Privilege' Claim - Glen Greenwald 
Judge Sides with Congress - Paul Kiel, Pro Publica

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Stevens Trial to Begin Before Election - The Hill
Ohio: The Big Bellwether Battlefield - The Economist
G.D.O. Grows at Tepid Pace - New York Times

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (D) is working on a Senate version of an apology for slavery.

Harkin said he is working with Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas on the resolution and he has yet to formally announce the proposal but anticipates it could hit the Senate floor in September. In the House, Harkin has been negotiating with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).

"I've been working on it, and I have the companion bill on that," Harkin said.

"Look, we've apologized to Native Americans. We apologized to the Hawaiians, for overthrowing their king. We've apologized to Japanese-Americans. We did all that. But the biggest blot on America was slavery. It was condoned by the Constitution, condoned by our early governments, condoned by business. We fought a very bloody civil war over it, and there were Jim Crow laws after that. We can't do anything about that, and reparations are out of the question. But what we can do is say, 'Look, in this day and age today, we recognize how wrong that was.'"

"We owe an apology to every descendent of slaves today because of what happened, because it set them back so far. Our commitment now ought to be to make sure we have laws for equal opportunity and equal access, education, all the things like that that can try to close that gap and move African-Americans in our society as forward as possible."

- J. Taylor Rushing

The John McCain campaign may want to rethink its strategy of attacking Barack Obama by comparing him Paris Hilton, her family has kicked a lot of money to his campaign.

Paris's parents have donated a combined $6,900 to the McCain campaign. The celebutaunt's father Rick gave McCain $4,600 in March, and her mother Kathleen spent her own $2,300 in April.

The family patriarch William Barron Hilton, the co-chairman of the Hilton hotel chain and celebrity's grandfather, has made five separate donations to McCain, totaling $15,100. The elder Hilton is a highly active GOP donor for several campaigns and committees, having donated to Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani as well as the National Republican Senatorial Committee to the tune of $15,000.

Paris has not donated to a candidate.

Unlike the Hilton's, the McCain camp doesn't have to worry about offending the family of Britney Spears. Neither the pop star nor her family have made any campaign contributions.

More money has been spent on presidential campaign ads in Pennsylvania, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The campaigns of Barack Obama, John McCain and the Republican National Committee have spent about $10.3 million on campaign advertisements in the Keystone State. The campaigns spent $4 million less on ads in Ohio, which saw the second-most spending on ads. The next three states are Michigan, Florida and Virginia.

Philadelphia is the city that has seen the most ads, followed by Detroit and Cleveland.

Barack Obama's campaign launched a new website Thursday hitting John McCain for taking the "low road."

"John McCain used to stand for 'straight talk.' Not anymore," the top of the site reads.

"These days John McCain doesn't seem to stand for anything but negative attacks and false charges against Barack Obama. This isn’t the John McCain we used to know."

The site is very basic, including only a few quotes and videos critical of McCain's recent lines of attack.

Luke Russert, son of late "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert, is joining NBC News as a correspondent covering the Republican and Democratic conventions.

Russert, a recent graduate of Boston College, will report on youth issues. He co-hosted a memorial service at the Kennedy Center for his father, who died last month from a heart attack. He also co-hosts a sports talk show on XM Radio with Democratic strategist James Carville.

"Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote, and Luke will bring a unique perspective to covering it," said NBC News President Steve Capus in a release.

The John McCain campaign combined its two recent favorite lines of attack Thursday, hitting Barack Obama for not visiting wounded troops in Germany and calling him a celebrity in the same statement.

"Last week, Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. I served as director of trauma surgery at that hospital for nearly four years and saw the effect that a visit from a celebrity like Senator Obama could have on morale," Dr. Danny Jazarevic, the chief of trauma care at Landstuhl medical base, wrote in a statement sent out by the McCain campaign.

"During that time, I do not recall a single member of Congress canceling a visit with the troops despite being just a few hours away, but Senator Obama seems to have been more concerned with how the visit would affect him than how it would affect the soldiers recovering from wounds received in the service of their country."

Each day since Obama's speech in Berlin last week, the McCain camp has issued a statement on Democratic presidential nominee not visiting wounded troops, but the Obama campaign, and many others, have pushed back against the attack. The group FactCheck.org has called the attack simply "false."

"In fact, Obama visited wounded troops earlier — without cameras or press — both in the U.S. and Iraq," the group wrote.

The McCain camp has also taken every opportunity available this week to call Obama a "celebrity" linking him with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in a campaign ad and in interviews with top surrogates.

Obama hit back against that line of attack Thursday by asking McCain, "is that the best you can come up with?"

Responding to Obama at a town hall in Wisconsin, McCain said, "all I can say is that we are proud of that commercial."

The Sierra Club has cut a new ad to air in battleground states that criticizes John McCain for supporting tax breaks for oil companies.

In the spot, an announcer says that while "big oil companies have our economy and politics in a chokehold," McCain's answer is to give $4 million to them. It cites a Center for American Progress report that argues that McCain's energy plan would give the companies a $4 billion tax cut.

Watch the ad below.

Barack Obama mocked the John McCain campaign Thursday for an ad comparing the Democratic presidential nominee to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

"Given the seriousness of the issues, you'd think we could have a serious debate," Obama said at a campaign event in Iowa.

"But so far, all we've been hearing about is Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. I mean, I do have to ask my opponent, is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what this election is about? Is that what is worthy of the American people?"

Obama called the ad "predictable" and said it shows the McCain campaign views politics "as a game."

A federal district court’s ruling to uphold House subpoenas of White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten has liberal bloggers discussing the ruling’s implications. Barack Obama suggesting John McCain is more focused on scaring voters away from the Democrat that proposing policy has some conservatives crying foul that Obama is playing the race card.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) scored a big victory over the White House today, as a federal district court refused to dismiss the committee’s case to enforce subpoenas against Miers and Bolten, Kagro X proclaims at Daily Kos. But while the court seems to agree with Conyers in principle, there’s still the question of how to physically enforce the subpoenas, Kagro X writes. The court’s ruling means former White House adviser Karl Rove will have to appear before the committee, as it decimated the White House’s arguments for immunity from testifying, Firedoglake’s emptywheel determines.

Obama has gone too far, Ed Morrissey proclaims at Hot Air, by suggesting McCain is making subtle, racist comments to scare voters away from the Democrat. Morrissey cites a speech where Obama suggests McCain is telling voters Obama “doesn’t look like the other presidents.” The latest response to McCain’s “Celeb” ad will mark a trend for Obama, who will “play the race card” for the rest of the campaign, Jay Nordlinger predicts at The Corner.

But while conservatives allege Obama plays the race card, McCain’s camp is trying to get Obama on the defensive about homosexuality, liberals charge. By comparing Obama to female celebrities Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, McCain has marked Obama as effete, and homophobia motivated the attack, Jonathan Chait proclaims at The Plank. As McCain’s aides describe Obama’s responses to attacks as “fussy,” McCain is making his own not-so-subtle hints, AMERICABLOG’s John Aravosis agrees.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Here We Go Again - Jay Nordlinger, The Corner
Conyers Wins - Kagro X, Daily Kos
Fla., Ohio, Pa. Polls - Big Tent Democrat, TalkLeft
Surge Approval Surges - John McCormack, The Weekly Standard
Clinton Not VP? - Jerome Armstrong, MyDD
Kaine a Smokescreen for Sebelius? - Jeralyn, TalkLeft
Barack Obama Is Afraid of Himself - Michelle Malkin
Obama Taunts McCain - Marc Ambinder
McCain Needs to Stop It - John Aravosis, AMERICABLOG
Cons' War on Contraception - Kevin Drum, Political Animal

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Judge: Aides Face Subpoenas - Washington Post
Bush Cuts Iraq Tours - NY Times
Bush Reforms Intelligence Community - The Hill
White House, Libya Close to Deal - Wall Street Journal