Former Rep. Joe DioGuardi stopped by the “Capital Tonight” studio this afternoon to update me on his bid to oust Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and also chatted at length about his former House colleague Rep. Charlie Rangel, whom he says should resign – if only to spare his party, and himself, a prolonged ethics trial.

The bulk of the interview focused on politics. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get the latest on what’s happening with the “American Idol” judge shake-up, in which DioGuardi’s daughter, Kara, may or may not have been bounced from the panel for the next season.

DioGuardi, who has at times balked at being best known as “Kara’s Dad”, informed me his daughter “still has not heard anything” regarding the winnowing of the panel back down to three judges, adding:

“She read it the way you did and I did. In fact, her disappointment is that that’s the way she’s being treated and she feels that’s not proper.”

“Now, what could this be about? I think what they’re trying to do is to create a lot of buzz like they did with Paula Abdul. They’re trying to reformat the thing.”

DioGuardi noted that his daughter has a “very deep career in music” and also just got married this past July 4 and “would like to have a family”, hinting that perhaps a break from “Idol” wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

When I noted Kara DioGuardi has a lot to fall back on and so doesn’t have to accept being mistreated, if that’s how she feels, he replied: “No, and I think she will at some point confront them about that.”

He didn’t go into specifics.

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