Former music industry chief Hilary Rosen, whose deep unpopularity online once earned her a description in Wired as "the Unabomber in a pantsuit," has been named political director at The Huffington Post.

Rosen is best known as the Recording Industry Association of America's former chairman and chief executive officer. She headed up the group just as file-sharing took off, and she subsequently became the ubiquitous face and voice of the recording industry's aggressive and futile attempts to contain the explosion of online downloading of illegal music.

She stepped down from the RIAA in 2003 and became an interim director for the Human Rights Campaign.

She's now a pundit on MSNBC as well as a media and technology consultant in Washington, DC.

But Rosen, 50, has had a long career in politics that spans beyond her 17 years at the RIAA, and it's her network of contacts and know-how that Huffington wants to tap into as The Huffington Post grows.

"Hilary really knows Washington and its political players intimately, and everyone on [The Huffington Post's] team in Washington loves her," said Arianna Huffington in an interview.

Huffington says that Rosen's deep network of contacts in DC should help to boost her publication's political coverage. She says that she also expects Rosen to help out with *The Huffington Post's Off The Bus*citizen journalism reporting project, as well as plan this summer's convention coverage.

In addition to being a pithy, long-time blogger at The Huffington Postand MSNBC political analyst, Rosen is the co-founder and board member of OurChart.com, a social networking site for lesbians.

During this election cycle, she's announced her support for Hillary Clinton, and co-executive produced a Democratic presidential forum organized by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and LOGO television.

Photo: D Farber.