How Liz Claman Got Warren Buffett To Do Whatever She Wants

Was it alright for Imus to tell the Fox Business Network's Liz Claman that she looks great today?

"You better," said Claman, seductively.

Imus wanted his guest's take on Goldman Sachs, the behemoth global investment bank that Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi once described as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."

"Whatever," said Claman. "Goldman Sachs is making its money and its profits. I only get touchy when these banks that are taking outrageous risks...suddenly lose everything and come to your door, my door, my neighbor's door, union welders' doors, substitute teachers' doors, and say, 'Sorry, now your problem is what was my problem.'"

Clearly Claman does not mind that, as Imus put it, "grandma is eating dog food" while the fat cats at Goldman Sachs pad their bank accounts with million dollar bonuses.

"There are all kinds of organic dog foods that are actually edible," Claman said.

Unable to focus for more than a few seconds at a time, Imus shifted topics to Claman's personal life. She's married with two kids, and her husband is a senior producer at CNN.

"Get out of our studio," Imus directed his guest, who was willing to do just about anything to get the Fox Business Network onto Cablevision. It's that sort of attitude that probably landed her several interviews over the years with mega-investor Warren Buffett.

Not exactly. While working for another business network that shall not be named, Claman simply picked up the phone and called Buffett's assistant, despite rumors that he was strangely reclusive and never came out of his "Omaha hole."

"He picked up the phone and said, 'Hi, Liz. I just finished watching you,'" she recalled. Despite Buffett's initial resistance, Claman got him to agree to a meeting by sharing her own history: she's the granddaughter of a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in Canada penniless, started a junkyard, and put three sons through medical school.

"He said, 'My best businesses were bought from Russian immigrants, and I'd love to show them to you,'" said Claman, whose father became a world-renowned urologist.

As such, Imus felt comfortable revealing the one thing he wanted from the doctors treating his prostate cancer: a "wiener warrantee."

"Yeah, you need your penis," said Claman, to the disgust and horror of everyone in the studio and in the audience. "What? I'm a doctor's daughter!"

-Julie Kanfer