Literally within minutes of our report on “The Factor” last night, Amanda Marcotte, a viciously anti-Christian blogger, left the John Edwards campaign. And today, her partner in crime, Melissa McEwan was shown the door as well.

Both women consistently delivered hate filled diatribes on their Internet sites. And Senator Edwards was foolish to hire them in the first place.

But the reason Edwards has pretty much taken himself out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is his arrogance. Even after the Catholic League pointed out to Edwards that his employees were attacking Christianity in the most offensive ways, using sexual images of Mary, the mother of Jesus, for example, even after that, Edwards refused to take action.

It was only after critical mass was reached and millions of people around the world actually saw what these women were putting on the Net that Edwards came to his senses.

But it's too late. It's ironic that a joke gone wrong about U.S. troops in Iraq sunk Edwards' running mate Sen. John Kerry. But that was not nearly as bad as the Edwards Christian situation. And Kerry to his credit recognized his mistake. Edwards remains defiant.

America needs leadership that is fair to all its people. Everyone knows that Edwards or any other politician would never employ an anti-Semite, a Ku Klux Klan member, or an anti-Muslim bigot, or a homophobe. And Edwards had no problem standing by two anti-Christian women, even after he saw the vile things they had written.

John Edwards will test the waters in Iowa. And he may do OK in that small vote, but he will not go much further. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are strong candidates and are smarter than Edwards.

"Talking Points" doesn't feel good about the demise of John Edwards, but we did everything possible to hear his side of the story to extend to him the benefit of any doubt. For our trouble, he gave us the middle digit.

So now we all know about Senator Edwards. And as always, the folks will decide.

And that's "The Memo."

Most Ridiculous Item

A very small item buried in the back pages of The New York Times today announced that the bankrupt Air America radio network is auctioning off its stuff.

Now, it's interesting because the New York Times ran more than 20 stories on Air America, mostly very favorable, trying to prop up that catastrophe. But in the end, Stuart Smalley and his fellow assassins bombed big, because Americans of all political persuasions recognize hate- driven people and reject them.

Smalley now says he'll run for the Senate in Minnesota. Frightening. But as with Air America, the folks will decide, and that's never ridiculous.

—You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com