On to promote an annual conference on women's issues in California former NBC reporter and the current First Lady of California, Maria Shriver, stressed her desire to make sure it wasn't partisan because "that's not what I'm about." Anyone who's followed Shriver's career at NBC can't help but guffaw at that one. The following is an exchange between Matt Lauer and Maria Shriver that took place at 8:39am on this morning's Today show:
Matt Lauer: "I know this is the nineteenth of these types of conferences to be held and in the past there's been sometimes a political element to this and, and you felt very strongly that you wanted to get rid of that in terms of this conference."
Maria Shriver: "Well I wanted this conference when I took it over to be bipartisan. I wanted it to be a conference with a conscience. I wanted it to be a green conference and I wanted it to be a conference that was non-partisan. As we all know I'm in a bipartisan marriage so either, neither party can really claim me and I kind of see myself as a First Lady of all people. I really think that there are so many issues that unite us and that's what I concentrate on. I go out and talk about the issues where we have common ground. I talk about solutions, I try to talk about other people who are out talking about solutions and I think that the people whether they're Democrats, Republicans, Greens, declined to state, they're really interested in people like Sister Jennie who are out there doing things in the community, that are doing positive things. They're interested in solutions to all of these issues. They're not interested in partisan, polarizing dialogue and that's not what I'm about, never have been."
Hmm, Shriver's never been about polarizing dialogue or partisanship? Well a quick search of the MRC's Web site found these doozies:
“You place responsibility for the death of your daughter squarely at the feet of the Reagan administration. Do you believe they’re responsible for that?” Shriver asked AIDS sufferer Elizabeth Glaser at the Democratic convention on July 14, 1992.
"When you marry someone, you marry them for sickness and health. [Republican politics] are Arnold's sickness." Shriver on husband Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1992 edition of McCall's Magazine.
For more of Shriver's past, non-partisanship, check here.
Later in the interview current NBC anchor Matt Lauer demonstrated some present day bias when he prompted a conference honoree to use this opportunity to grab some funding from the taxpayers:
Matt Lauer: " And Sister Jennie you're gonna receive a Minerva Award from the First Lady today. And, and just to give people an idea what you've done in some very rough neighborhoods in Los Angeles. You've started the Puente Learning Centers. You educate about 3,000 people every single day. I know after riots in '92 you went out and asked people what do you need? And they said, 'we need to learn English and we need to become literate.' You do a lot of this with private money. So now that you have the First Lady's ear are you gonna be hitting her up for some more state funding?"
Oh and some of the non-partisan guests that Matt Lauer chose to highlight? Well with the exception of Sandra Day O'Connor it reads like a who's, who list of liberal bias:
Lauer: "I know you've got a lot of great speakers, Maria, lined up. You've got and I noticed you in your press release you give Tom Brokaw top billing over Justice Sandra Day O'Connor which I thought was interesting. You've got Barbara Walters and Jane Fonda and people like that."
