So what's with that?

So why is it that the former darling of both the Independent and VOCM's radio call-in shows can't seem to get arrested these days.

First, VOCM asked her to abide by the rules and call the shows one a week as opposed to once a day for each of three shows for a while.

The self-styled "hydro-queen" took her teddy and vowed to boycott the entire station for a year. (It lasted a few weeks. She still invades the radio every so often, but these days seems to spend most of her time posting scribbles in varied coloured fonts of ever increasing size over at her rant-fest on the Internet.)

Then, the Independent - suddenly and inexplicably - stopped running her columns. On top of that, the Indy printed a letter by a retired CBC journalist that attacked her pretty savagely. We are talking slagged, big time, with the focus on her lack of credibility.

Now you have to appreciate that "hydro-queen" used to be the darling of the Indy under editor Ryan Cleary. She helped him put together the farcial "balance sheet" on Confederation. "Hydro-queen" even worked on the story that garnered so much of Dan The Man's ire, the one that talked about the Premier's personal charity - but said nothing much at the end of it because the research sucked.

Hmmmmm.

Maybe we can explain the second one. And it isn't because the research suddenly sucked; that's a constant.

Dan The Man gets his knee-britches in a knot and boycotts the Indy over a piece Ryan's fountain of misinformation helped put together. (The boycott is only for Danny and his personal publicist; other ministers still talk to Ryan and the crew.)

But then the researcher gets the flick after Dan's tirade and certainly after the initial complaints about the charity piece.

And then last week, not one but two columns tried to plant the senior editorial lips at the Indy squarely back on Dan The man's hindmost regions. The subject? Why Max Ruelokke of course. What better way to ingratiate oneself with The Man at the moment.

From "The Fighting Newfoundlander":

"Just because it's the law doesn't make it right. Not from where Newfoundland and Labrador stands anyway..."

"That process was followed to the letter - at least according to Halley. Again, that doesn't make the law right..."

"Fight the ruling until either he [Williams] wins, the federal government backs down and allows Andy to serve beside Ruelokke or the law is changed to suit our purposes"

"I'm a fan of Danny boy, in case that wasn't obvious..."

If we didn't know any better, we'd swear the Indy was still getting copy e-mails from the Premier's publicity department; they couldn't have written that any better.

And actually, Ryan the depth of your affection for the prime ministerial posterior is painfully obvious, but the comment didn't fit in the middle of the Ruelokke piece unless someone was really smarting over being rejected by one's fantasy and wanted to suck up...again.

Then there's the entire column by Ivan Morgan on the same subject which is built in some places on pure fabrication. It struggles to kiss both cheeks on pure invention.

But - and this is the big but - they both fall lock-step into line behind Danny Williams.

And the source of all wisdom at the Indy?

She's persona non grata after Dan The Man took exception.

Apparently.

So what's up with that?