But how sweet does he like his lemonade

Is Mel Karmazin hoping for Oprah to fail in the satellite radio show business? Apparently her failure would be news to his ears as he gears up to face regulators who are already hating on his proposed merger with rival XM. The queen of all media caused barely a ripple last fall when XM Satellite Radio announced she would get her own channel, "Oprah and Friends." On Wednesday, Sirius CEO Karmazin will trudge up to a Capitol Hill hearing to try and convince lawmakers his proposed merger with rival XM isn't anti-competitive. He could trot out the failure of Winfrey, Martha Stewart, and even Nascar to spark a new-subscriber wave as evidence the universe of audio entertainment extends well beyond the country's two ailing satellite radio businesses. Already, Karmazin, in starting to frame his argument, has said that satellite radio's real battle isn't Sirius versus XM, but Sirius and XM versus basic television, cable, iPods and every other media device on the planet. Actually, we think Sirius and XM's real battle will be against the mighty, mighty internet. OPRAH'S LEMONS MAY MAKE MEL'S LEMONADE [NYP]