An irony-deprived George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday expressed amazement that Arnold Schwarzenegger involved himself in politics despite such a messy personal life. Yet, back in 2003, the former Clinton operative touted Maria Shriver's "stand by your man" defense of her "A+" husband.
Appearing on the October 6, 2003 Good Morning America, he marveled how it was "very similar to what Hillary Clinton did back in Bill Clinton's campaign. It's probably his best defense right now."
Shriver, who now claims to have been unaware that Schwarzenegger fathered a child with another woman over ten years ago, disingenuously recounted how she interviewed Hillary Clinton:
Tim Russert: "How long did you take to prepare for that interview?"
Maria Shriver: "A couple of weeks, about two or three weeks, and I read everything. I memorized that book up and down. I memorized everything that was written about Whitewater, about Travelgate, about Hillary Clinton, about First Ladies....You want to admire her, and yet you're a journalist and you have to ask her these tough questions, you have to be skeptical, and you can't just come on and do this like `Oh, you're so wonderful' interview."
-- Maria Shriver on her interview with Hillary Clinton, CNBC's Tim Russert, Feb. 4, 1996
Reality Check:
"What's this week been like for you personally?"
"...In the book, you write about preparing your daughter Chelsea for the negative things people might say to her about her father, but you don't say in the book about preparing her for the negative things people might say about her mom. What's this past week, two weeks been like for her?"
"...But this is beyond the territory, I mean, this is tough. This is your mom someone's talking about. Is she upset about this? What have you said to her?"
"...Whitewater. I know you've been answering questions on this subject for four years. Thousands of documents have been handed over, but they still want even more. As you look back on this, do you wish you'd never worked for Madison Guaranty?"
"...You also quote a letter in there that Nelson Mandela wrote to one of his daughters while he was in prison, and I'm paraphrasing a bit, but he wrote that there is no personal misfortune that one cannot turn into a personal triumph if one has the iron will and the necessary skills. You clearly have an iron will, you clearly are skilled. How are you going to turn this personal misfortune into a personal triumph?"
-- Some of Shriver's tough questions to Hillary Clinton, January 16, 1996 Today.
