Posted on 01/07/2007 11:46:24 AM PST by wagglebee
THERE is one woman who could cause Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, more problems than Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House: she is Donna Hanover, his second wife, writes Sarah Baxter.
Hanover, an actress and broadcaster, was enraged by Giuliani’s flagrant infidelity towards the end of their 18-year marriage and the divorce case was vicious. Giuliani’s advisers fear that she could be a loose cannon in the 2008 campaign.
Giuliani was acclaimed as the “mayor of America” for his heroic role during the attacks on September 11, 2001 and is revered for his leadership. At the time he was living in the spare room of an apartment belonging to gay friends after Hanover forced him out of Gracie Mansion, the official residence.
Hanover refused to confirm that she would vote for Giuliani as mayor of New York even when she was married to him. “What kind of wife is that?” Raoul Felder, Giuliani’s lawyer, fumed. “She’s essentially saying she’s not going to vote for him.”
Hanover once stood outside a shower at Gracie Mansion, expecting to confront Judith Nathan, Giuliani’s mistress, now his third wife. In the event, a startled golfing friend of Giuliani’s emerged.
Hanover was also accused of a lack of sympathy while the former mayor was battling prostate cancer, by banishing him to a spare bedroom and exercising noisily on a treadmill at 5am.
New Yorkers relished the details of Giuliani’s larger-than-life personal story. But conservative “values voters” could be different, as Giuliani’s own aides noted in a 140-page memo leaked last week by supporters of a rival candidate.
The campaign dossier suggested that Hanover could be one of several potentially “insurmountable” vulnerabilities that could cause him to drop out of the race. It was an embarrassing start to a campaign that is not yet officially under way.
Giuliani’s record in fighting crime and terrorism has placed him at the top of several polls for the 2008 Republican nomination, edging out Senator John McCain in popular support. But the party base may be turned off by his support for abortion, immigration, gun control and gay rights (although not gay marriage). It is their votes that he needs to secure the nomination.
“It would be one thing if Giuliani could say, ‘I’m a strong social conservative in my private life’, but he can’t even say that,” said Ramesh Ponnuru, a conservative commentator and author of The Party of Death, an attack on social liberalism. “It’s not just the fact of his multiple marriages, it is the way the Hanover marriage melted down. It was operatic.”
When Giuliani met Hanover on a blind date in the early 1980s, his first marriage to Regina, his second cousin, was already over. Hanover, who went on to appear in the television series Ally McBeal, was a glamorous soulmate who seemed to enjoy the spotlight as much as he did.
They had two children, Andrew, 21, and Caroline, 17, but in 1996 Hanover stopped calling herself by his last name and a year later Vanity Fair magazine said that he was having an “intimate relationship” with a senior member of his staff.
In 2000, without telling Hanover first, Giuliani announced at a press conference that he was separating from her. She retaliated by accusing him of being unfaithful with the employee, but he was already with Nathan.
Maggie Gallagher, a family values campaigner, was outraged by Giuliani’s “scummy” performance, accusing him of making Bill Clinton “look good as a husband and father”.
New Yorkers learnt during the divorce case that their cancer- afflicted mayor was temporarily impotent and Hanover demanded a huge settlement, including £760 a month to care for Goalie, the family’s golden retriever.
Felder struck back, accusing Hanover of being an “uncaring mother” who was “howling like a stuck pig”.
In the end Giuliani, who was beginning to earn big consultancy fees after September 11, agreed to a settlement of $6.8m to avoid the full horror of a court case.
Hanover has married Ed Oster, her university sweetheart, and written a book, My Boyfriend’s Back, about rekindling an old romance. Even if she stays mum, there is enough in the public domain to rattle conservatives. Yet however vicious the personal attacks on Giuliani, they are unlikely to dent his reputation for competence. He did, after all, handle the September 11 attacks while bunking with gay friends in the midst of an affair and a divorce battle.
Donna Hanover has so much baggage herself, I doubt she would expose herself now. Hopefully, she has moved on. Almost all sympathy in NY was with Rudy through all this. She was an extremely disliked and unpopular figure. With the way she conducted herself, hardly anyone blamed Rudy.
Isn't it a sad state when we consider someone's marital history more important than their leadership and intellectual ability?
Thanks, UP!! I'm seriously lookin' at him!
The video is very interesting (see #95 for link)
You see, if Giuliani were to become the candidate [which he won't], when I ggot ready to vote, I'd to vote for the best candidate on the slate. I' wouldn't turn up my nose and not vote and let someone else [like a bunch of Democrats] determine the election outcome. I'd probably vote for Giuliani over Joe Biden, for instance, any day. Being sanctimonious isn't constructive.
Why would she refer to his parents as Aunt and Uncle if she was a second cousin?
Looks like his prostate let Hillary become NY's senator and now his ex-wife will be responsible for Hill to become...........NEVER MIND....I just can't bring myself to say it!!
I've noticed this a lot on FR. I saw guys ripping PayGo (something the Republicans should have passed) because it meant they couldn't continue to cut taxes while raising spending.
These people are not conservative. Since when have conservatives considered a balanced budget illogical? Since when has borrowing from ChiComs to pay for pork projects, and then handing the debt to our children, been considered conservative? This must stop. Conservatives must take the party back or we will look like Europe.
Yeah, that whole wife dying of cancer while you're off having an affair was pretty messy.
The RINOs in the senate handed control to the Rats before there was an election...
Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary wasn't a big help either...
OK, this is to all the boneheads who are going to push for a Tancredo or Hunter or anything else presidency:
You know perfectly well, neither of them will win squat. They won't win a single primary. And it's not hard to imagine why: They're professional House members. They've done almost nothing else. Of course they have perfect position papers and pristine principles. They've never been tested. They've never had to negotiate. They've never had to manage a large organization. They've never had to set priorities.
Moreover, you guys support these also-rans because you know they WON'T win. You don't want to have to defend anyone. you don't want to have to take a half a loaf. If he doesn't adhere to your narrow notion of "principle," you'll throw him over the side.
I've seen it time and time again on FR. There's a contingent who supports a nobody specifically because they don't know much about him. They project their desires on him.
Well, a "don't blame me" bumper sticker isn't civic responsibility, it's irresponsibility. There is no way someone whose resume only includes "member, US House of Representatives" is ready for the Presidency and will never get elected. Period.
I wouldn't be able to recognize any of my second cousins.
I like Rudy. But, that is a major liability. Our three front runners all have liabilities that may or may not eliminate them as strong nominees. Except for McCain I hope the other two Romney and Rudy can overcome. The point is that we need not have party leaders clearing the field for anyone. we need to see how they weather these issues and test them before we choose one. That is the problem with the Dem's in '04. They took one who looked god to them on paper and he proved to be weak.
easy, guys. that was sarcastic ;)
Here's the headline:
Giuliani fears ex-wife will hit presidential bid
I challenge anyone to find ANYTHING in that article that supports that headline.
The RINOs in the senate handed control to the Rats before there was an election...
Turning the general election into a second Democrat primary wasn't a big help either... AND IT WON'T BE in the future...
I might has well write in Bullwinkle if I have to choose between two liberal New York lawyers with Madison Avenue designer labels.
But the American people don't know Tancredo and Hunter. They vote only for familiar names. They are too "busy" to educate themselves.
I've wondered why Rudy didn't run for NYGov this time. I really can't understand why he thinks he can be president, let alone the Republican nominee.
Maybe he's running for VP (like I believe Duncan Hunter is) but the VP choice will likely be a conservative so as to ease conservatives' worries.
Maybe he wants to keep a high profile so that he can be taken on a sedan chair to Albany when Spitzer makes a mess of NYS.
I disagree.
Resume for Edwards: Trial lawyer, brief senator
Resume for Clinton: Wife of prez, short time as senator
Resume for Obama: 2 years as senator
Those are the Dem frontrunners. I think a person who takes a stand on illegals will lock up the swing states in the southwest, and probably Virginia as well.
She's not running for anything and exposed mental and emotional problems is nothing more than a resume enhancement in her profession.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.