Hatred of Martha for Being the Good?

Writing for Men’s News Daily (“Loud, Proud, & Unbowed”), Amber Pawlik says the handling of the Martha Stewart case is just what Ayn Rand warned people not to do:

It is very obvious Stewart was prosecuted mercilessly because of who she is, i.e. a successful businessperson and not what she did. It has nothing to do with her being a female ? Bill Gates gets the same treatment. If you don?t believe this, consider what a juror said after the trial ? that the verdict was a victory for the ?average guy.? (Apparently making successful CEOs grovel in jail is somehow a victory for average people).
The defense put up by Stewart, however, was completely incompetent. They relied on telling the jury that what Stewart gave up by selling the stock was ?pocket change,? and asked how a woman so smart could have done something so stupid. Ya, that will work on a jury that already considers Stewart elitist.
Martha Stewart is no Enron executive. The government has no business regulating ?insider trading? in the first place ? it is something the market itself can regulate on its own. The scandal around her is ridiculous ? more ridiculous that she is going to jail over it.
I?ve avoided writing on this topic, because the witch-hunt against Stewart is too unbearable for me to handle. This case is evidence of what Ayn Rand called a hatred of the good for being good. Stewart is not being dragged through this hell because of her vices but because of her virtues.

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