Shriver meets with candidates' wives (Jooty Giuliani won't attend)

When Maria Shriver gathers five wives of 2008 presidential candidates for a forum next week, it will be a first-of-its-kind event. What it won't be is a debate. "I don't want them to spend their time at this conference saying, 'My husband thinks this and my husband thinks that,'" Shriver said. "One of the criticisms of (presidential) debates is that people don't get to know who the people are, that they are canned. I am hoping that we will have a very real conversation with five women who have extraordinary lives and that people will understand who they are and what they believe." Shriver will moderate the forum, which includes Michelle Obama, Jeri Thompson, Cindy McCain, Elizabeth Edwards and Ann Romney.

It is one of the signature events at the annual daylong Women's Conference on Tuesday at the Long Beach Convention Center. Shriver co-hosts the conference along with her husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. As she said, "What Davos is to economic forums this is to women." Other events include a conversation between Schwarzenegger and former British minister Tony Blair, as well as appearances by Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Muhammad Yunis, Mexico's first lady Margarita Zavala, Geraldine Ferraro, Christine Todd Whitman and other personalities such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Eckhart Tolle, Nora Ephron and Joan Baez.

But it's the gathering of spouses that is especially timely. "These are women who are outspoken, they have had careers," Shriver said. "They are campaigning not so much as surrogates but in their own right." And of course, they are involved a campaign that includes a former presidential spouse now seeking the highest office, Hillary Clinton. She has undoubtedly helped change the dynamics of what a spouse does on the trail.

Not participating in the forum is Judith Giuliani, who has has taken an active role in her husband's campaign -- and has taken a few hits in the media. Among other things, she has been the subject of an unflattering profile in Vanity Fair.

Now, how did Rooty's campaign central rationalize Jooty's absence from Maria's Big Do?

(1) "Jooty's already a political catastrophe."

(2) "Maria would annihilate her."

(3) "That's Jooty's day to shop and get her nails done."

(4) "Jooty can't decide what to wear."

(5) "VF is (an expletive deleted)."

(6) "Remember Jooty/Rooty bombing on 20/20."

EXCERPT: The 2008 Election: Giuliani's Princess Bride (Rudy's third wife)
VANITY FAIR BY JUDY BACHRACH Sept 2007

At 19 Judi married Jeffrey Ross,* a US Surgical salesman six years her senior. In short order both Rosses were working in Charlotte, North Carolina, for U.S. Surgical (now part of Tyco Healthcare), which eventually grew into a billion-dollar enterprise marketing surgical staplers. Judi was excellent at her work, and earned $40,000 a year by the late 70s.

But problems arose when animal-rights groups began investigating the way the company sold its products—problems recently pointed out by the New York press. U.S. Surgical used dogs in demonstrations to doctors and hospitals as part of its marketing plan. "Every salesperson at U.S. Surgical was trained for six weeks with dogs at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, and that was really brutal," explains a former employee.

"They spent days and days with dogs, taking out the spleen or stomach or the lobe of a lung. Then if the dog started moaning or fidgeted, whoever was closest would push more sedative into him from the syringe. It was horrible. Then the dog would be killed with potassium chloride."

After training, the salespeople marketed the staplers to doctors, and, once again, in many cases large dogs were used, as they had organs comparable in size to those possessed by humans. "After the stapling, sometimes they'd put a big clamp above and below the staple lines of the dog, and fill [the area] with lots of fluid," the ex-employee says. "It would fill up like a balloon, and the salesperson would say to the doctor, 'See—it doesn't leak!' That's how they marketed and sold the product."

(Some years ago, former C.E.O. Leon Hirsch defended the company's practice of using dogs, claiming that there was no proper substitute.)

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/09/giuliani200709?printable=true&currentPage=all

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* POSTER'S NOTE Jooty "forgot" to mention Ross, her first husband, both to Rooty and the media. Up until a few months ago, all media biographies of Jooty mentioned only her last husband, Bruce Nathan (the one she divorced to be with the married Mayor----Jooty also abandoned her only child in order to facilitate the divorce from Nathan).

Maria's about as agenda driven on the liberal side as they come.

Now that explains it perfectly. Thank you.

Maria's a liberal---- and so is Judy Giuliani.

Judy making nice with liberals would screwup Rudy's Extreme Makeover.
The Rino is desperately trying to look conservative.....after he found out
he needs conservatives to look good in the primaries.

(graphic courtesy of monkapotamus)

" P-u-u-l-e-e-z-e make me look conservative."

Man, they're killing me on FR just b/c I had three wives, several mistresses,
was honored by NARAL, donated to Planned Parenthood, and marched
for gay rights under the NAMBLA banner, and appointed
gays and pedophiles to top city jobs."

"Sheesh. And my stupid advisors told me I didn't need those dumb,
pro-life Christian conservatives to make a primary showing."

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