Imus Goes Approx. Eight Minutes Without Talking About Himself During Interview with Liz Claman

If Liz Claman never came in studio again, that would be A-OK with Imus, who complimented his guest, an anchor and reporter on the Fox Business Network, on her “porno voice.”

Claman hosts the 3 o’clock “Countdown to the Closing Bell” hour on FBN, which she told Imus is “arguably the most important hour of the day,” because “it’s not how the market opens, it’s how it closes.”

Interesting. “You’re suggesting, subtly, that your hour is more important than, say, when Connell and Dagen are on?” Imus asked Claman. “Or when Lori and whatever his name is are on?”

That would be FBN’s Chris Cotter, who, according to Claman, is cut like the Incredible Hulk. She suggested Imus invite him in studio sans shirt one morning, just to spike ratings, but Imus demurred. “We’d have to keep Charles under control,” he explained.

Poor little Charles was scared yesterday by Fox’s Neil Cavuto saying that foreclosure freezes around the country could potentially force the U.S. economy back into a freefall, and Claman didn’t do much to calm his fears.

“There is a great belief by a lot of really smart people that we should actually let everything fail at this point, so that you can fix the base of it, you fix the foundation,” Claman said. “Versus, let’s build a brand new, fancy building on top of a cracked and dangerous foundation.”

Also risky: reporting from an oil rig out in the Gulf of Mexico, as Claman did recently. After ten years of wanting to do this story, she finally shuttled down south to spend some time on a shallow water oil rig stationed three-and-a-half miles off the coast of Louisiana in 50 feet of water.

“The shallow water drillers are in real trouble,” she said. “Because while there’s not a moratorium against them specifically, they can’t get any permits approved.”

Though the rig Claman was on drills clean-burning natural gas, the administration has been slow to approve necessary permits in the wake of the gigantic and devastating oil spill caused by an explosion on a deepwater rig back in April.

“I see the administration’s point, in that they don’t want to rubberstamp stuff like they did the past ten years,” Claman said. “But these guys are employing American workers. It’s natural gas, it’s clean, and they have a very good safety record.”

Imus wondered if the mettle of guys on shallow water rigs differs from that of the deepwater drillers. “There’s a different level of expertise, because deepwater involves a whole different ball game,” she said, and noted the distinction is more often drawn between oil rigs workers and those who work in oil fields, like in Texas.

Imus made sure to point out that he was once a miner, and that there was a difference between the guys who would go underground and those who would not. “I’m almost incapable of having a conversation with anybody for any length of time without talking about me in some fashion,” he quickly admitted.

Funny, we hadn’t noticed.

-Julie Kanfer