Two weeks after she was rumored to have been fired from [article id="1644775"]"American Idol," Kara DioGuardi[/article] has still not spoken to anyone involved with the show, and feels that she has been mistreated by producers. At least, according to her dad, anyway.

In an interview earlier this week with Albany, New York, TV show "Capital Tonight," Joe DioGuardi -- a former congressman now seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate -- said that his daughter is disappointed by the way "Idol" has treated her, and that she remains in the dark about her future on the show.

"Would you believe that she did not hear -- and still has not heard -- anything?" DioGuardi said. "She read [about her supposed firing] the way you and I did. Her disappointment is that that's the way she's being treated, and she feels that's not proper."

Following fellow [article id="1644762"]"Idol" judge Ellen DeGeneres'[/article] announcement that she was leaving the show, reports began to surface that DioGuardi was out too. "Idol" has been conducting a lengthy search to replace one of them, as well as departed judge Simon Cowell. Aerosmith frontman [article id="1644881"]Steven Tyler[/article] is apparently in the mix, and, until earlier this week, so was singer/actress [article id="1645541"]Jennifer Lopez[/article], though producers reportedly dropped her from the list of potential replacements after her demands "got out of hand."

Joe DioGuardi chalks all that maneuvering up to "Idol" trying to generate some buzz for the fading show, and added that, despite her bitterness over the way she's been handled, his daughter would still return to the judges' table if she were asked. Maybe.

"I think what they're trying to do is create a lot of buzz, like they did with Paula Abdul. They're trying to reformat the thing, but Kara has a very deep career in music ... so she'll be fine," he said. "Would she want to do it another year? I think so, but she just got married, and she'd like to have a family, so maybe this is a good opening for her too. She has plenty of options. I think she will, at some point, confront them on that."

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