After a couple of weeks of rumors that Air America would file for bankruptcy protection, it finally happened.

On the same day, Air America named Scott Elberg as the new CEO. Welcome aboard, Captain Elberg! Life vests are right over there.

What did the new CEO have to say?

''Nobody likes filing for bankruptcy. However, this move will enable us to concentrate on informing and entertaining our audience during the coming months.''

Putting aside any urge to imagine what the reaction would have been had Ken Lay said something similar, no doubt among those who won't be entertained are Air America's creditors and even some employees. Another problem is that Air America pays stations to let them on the air, instead of the other way around, making these radio stations essentially 5,000-watt karaoke bars who are finding that the kid who agreed to pay a few bucks to get on stage and sing ''Takin' Care of Business'' might be about to bolt out the back door.

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It's been reported Air America has $4.3 million in assets, $20.2 million in liabilities and has lost around $42 million overall. Or, as Michael Jackson refers to it, ''Mini-Me.''

If Air America does indeed end up failing, some fear we could be in for another Fairness Doctrine, which ''levels the playing field'' in spite of demand and uses any leftover dirt to bury market forces. I've read and heard many people, from columnists to radio talk hosts, saying that if we wish to avoid another Fairness Doctrine, everybody should do their best to support Air America. I certainly support the free market, but it ends there. Calling for the artificial support of a particular entity just to keep the government from implementing another unconstitutional law is, in a manner of speaking, appeasing despotism. In other words, it's way too Jimmy Carter-ish for my taste and is like burning yourself at the stake to avoid being tried as a witch.

All of Air America's reported financial woes brings up the question of why billionaire leftist uber-supporter George Soros won't crack open the checkbook to fully fund Air America. Sure, Soros, along with various groups, has pledged to underwrite some of Air America's losses, but there's a point when Atlas not only shrugs, but splits.

That being said, Soros has given away millions and millions of dollars to organizations and disorganizations bent on sending Bush packing and defeating Republicans, and as a result is the financial darling of the Democratic National Committee and anti-Bushers. Liberals bunch up in close proximity to Soros' wallet – so much so that at his next colonoscopy, the doctor is likely to find a benign polyp and five Democrat activists.

Why then won't the Democrats' pot of gold bail Air America out of this problem – a story that, oddly enough, starts with Chapter 11?

Soros most certainly could ease their pain with one swoop of his mighty checkbook pen, and it wouldn't even have to be a direct gift. He could buy a bunch of 30-second ads for MoveOn.org for, say, $50 million, to skirt any potential finance law violations.

MoveOn.org, for which Soros is the financial equivalent of a pinup gal, does a lot of advertising. I wonder how much of its ad budget is spent on Air America. As evidenced by the bankruptcy filing and one Al Franken who is owed over $360,000, we can assume the answer to that is ''not nearly enough.''

But then, this is Air America's entire problem. Advertisers, even publicly liberal, privately capitalist ones, want to spend their money where the most eyes and ears, the ones that matter to them, will see or hear the message. In that aspect, MoveOn.org is no different than General Motors, Kelloggs and Sony. In the universe of advertisers, which is any network's bread and butter, Air America is about as popular as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a Bar Mitzvah.

Unless somebody like Soros steps up with a healthy donation, which is unlikely, history will record that Air America's downfall was that it quickly became useless to even it's allies. It's painfully obvious that when Air America's house was built, construction started with the roof instead of the foundation – a common mistake.

Soros must know Democrats need to focus resources on what they're good at, which is … well, certainly not non-federally funded radio.

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