Over the past five years, David Stein has made a name for himself as a leader for Hollywood's conservatives. As an operator for the popular website Republican Party Animals, he hosted right-wing congressmen and celebrities at parties, and he was a regular on conservative talk shows. But it turns out Stein had a bizarre secret.

Executives have been dropping like flies (flies that are only taking a break! Honest!) at MSN. The Microsoft division is sinking as Microsoft's Live project takes over.

Microsoft-fan forum LiveSide says Michael Rawding will follow senior VP David Cole out MSN's door. According to LiveSide's source, the MSN global sales and marketing veep couldn't nab Cole's old job, so he's "taking leave" instead.

MSN is a swamp, and Microsoft is flushing it out. MSN director David Cole sent a company memo announcing his retirement this morning. The senior VP ran the network since 2001; since then, its search market share has slowly drifted to the bottom.