So. As we noted this morning, blog mistress Arianna Huffington didn't weigh in on the unexpected death of departed Meet the Press host Tim Russert until well after everyone else, and once she did, she didn't have much to say. Because of the old axiom about how much one should say when one doesn't have anything nice to say. (HuffPo's regular feature "Russert Watch" has gone blank—technical glitch or archive-scrubbing?) As anyone who's read Arianna's media writing over the last couple years knows, she never liked Tim. And we only just recently wandered into the fray, when we learned that Russert's unappreciated lapdog Chris Matthews hated Huffington for her years spent bashing his idol. And why did she hate Tim? This book excerpt might explain it all!

Republican strategist Ed Rollins wrote a memoir in which he discussed his role in Michael Huffington's disastrous run for the US Senate. Attached is the relevant excerpt, reporting the rumor that Arianna Huffington hired a private eye to tail Maureen Orth, the Vanity Fair author who happened to be married to Tim Russert.

Now Orth did write a piece on Michael. And it was terribly embarrassing for both Huffingtons. Since that story, Arianna had a political realignment, divorced her now-gay husband, and became a left-winger. Rollins remains a slimy Republican hack. It's his word against hers, and she's stringently denied the charge. But Orth believes it! So Tim probably did too. And so, obviously, Arianna did not have much to say about the death of beloved newsman Tim Russert.