The Hypocrisy Behind Arianna's Golden Goose.

I have to admit... the voice grates on my nerves.  After spending four decades living in English speaking countries, Arianna Huffington's accent should have gone through the same transformation as her gadfly politics. Perhaps spraying Windex on her tonsils would mellow the nasally, whiny syntax that pushes me to the point of wanting to pick arms up with the Turks should they decide to re-establish Ottoman dominance on Hellenistic soil.

Still, business is business, and I congratulate Ms. Huffington on the merger between AOL/ Time Warner and the Huffington Post.  As a conservative, I read HuffPost everyday for the standard cliche' of: I want to know what the enemy is thinking.  But I also admire the site itself.  The layout, quite frankly, is the best I've seen among any news site occupying broadband.  Though my Irish disposition may get drunk on Matt Drudge, my eye for aesthetics wants to eat baklava.  Arianna deserves every dime.

The problem is Arianna doesn't think we deserve every dime.  While granting herself dispensation from the evil capitalistic trappings of  landing a $315 million buyout package on an initial investment of $1 million in 2005, us mere mortals (small business owners) are put through her Greek inquisition when we raise the specter of possibly receiving some relief on our sub-chapter-s tax returns. The narrative of the "haves and have-nots" always becomes muted whenever a liberal has a large payday.  She may pay lip service to the chimera of our politics moving beyond  "left and right," but her ethos suggests another Elmer Gantry patrician of progressivism. If she were to run for office again, think of  Charlie Christ in drag...with an annoying accent.

Had this had been Andrew Breitbart or Erick Erickson looking at a $20 million windfall from the likes of a Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.,  the blogging troupe at Huffpost would be in histrionics over the certain demise of the fourth estate.  Congress would investigate.  Tears would be shed.

Meg Whitman is also taking a beating at the hands of the Huffpost over the perceived immorality of spending $117 million (of her own money) on her failed bid for a California senate seat.  Hmm...I wonder who is more nervous these days: the voters of California who now have "Moonbeam" back in their day-to-day lives, or AOL shareholders who just shelled out a third of a billion dollars for a website that just turned a profit for the first time this year. I call it a tie, with the caveat being that Huffpost can't stop talking about the former, yet does a scrub job on the latter.  Journalism begins at home, guys.

Liberal politics and American entrepreneurship just don't mix.  I think I prefer the old-fashioned ways of progressives deriving their fortunes on the backs of the American taxpayer.  I'm sure progressives prefer this as well.  But once in a while a workhorse like Huffington comes along and disturbs the apple cart of a 25 hour Democratic work week.  She should be applauded...and encouraged to speak the Queen's English.