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.
People ridicule his candidacy because apart from being preceived as strong and conpetent in the wake of 9/11, on closer inspection he is an embarrassment and a joke.
I find your post to be insulting. I'm not on the hunter or tancredo bandwagon, but to accuse hunter of not being tested is a farce. The man is a decorated army ranger, i think he's been better tested than most anyone else in washington.
Why was everyone so willing to forgive Ronald Reagan... A long-time member of one of the sleaziest of U.S. communities and careers (Hollywood), he had a very acrimonious divorce, was a registered Democrat, was accused of being a cold and distant father. And we allowed him to lead us and he turned out to be one of the greatest Governors and Presidents ever. And who can really beat "Bedtime for Bonzo" for lack of dignity (just kidding, it's a cute move)!
Or a lion...
I want no part of him and it has nothing to do with his private life.
But the thing is, we're in a war and it's going to take someone who is tough as nail and who is going to scare the CR*P out of the terrorists.
Dude...thanks for saying every last thing I've wanted to say for a long time!
Lincoln won a plurality of votes in perhaps the most fractured and bitterly divided election in US history. The circumstances were uniquely structured to allow him to win the presidency. 2008 is not going to afford a similar opportunity to Duncan Hunter or any other congressman.
Don't attempt to smear reagan to make your point.
Holywood was not as sleazy as it was today when reagan was in it. Holywood of Reagan's day was very pro american.
His divorce wasn't some big scandal, his wife left him not the other way around. And lets remember, nancy and ronald reagan had been married almost 30 years by the time he became president.
Yea, reagan was a registered democrat, but so what? As he put it, the democrat party left him, not the other way around.
Not for long.
I thought that was GWB in 2000...
2008 is not going to afford a similar opportunity to Duncan Hunter or any other congressman.
If the new Rosie O'Donnell wing of the Republican party keeps equating the Christians with the Taliban, I wouldn't count on that.
I should have said that his leadership skills were not tested. How many stars did he have when he retired?
You are completely ignorant of Hollywood history.
He did earn big points when he told that Saudi prince to stick his check where the sun don't shine, though.
"Meanwhile, in 1862, Ohioans elected him to Congress. President Lincoln persuaded him to resign his commission: It was easier to find major generals than to obtain effective Republicans for Congress. Garfield repeatedly won re-election for 18 years, and became the leading Republican in the House.
At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield failed to win the Presidential nomination for his friend John Sherman. Finally, on the 36th ballot, Garfield himself became the "dark horse" nominee."
So will be be Mitt, Rudy, or John? Any prediction?
As far as Reagan goes, there are a lot of differences.
Hollywood WAS NOT the leftist bastion in the 1940s and 50s that it is today. Look at guys like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, etc., they were totally pro-America. They supported blacklisting communists. Hollywood started going downhill during Vietnam.
Most importantly, Reagan more than proved himself as governor of California and he was the undisputed leader of conservativism after Goldwater's defeat in 1964.
It is the soldier who wins the wars on the field. Does he risk any less?
Anyone who cares about conservative or even middle-of-road values will disregard Giulliani's former wife because she was in the disgusting Broadway show, Vagina Monologues. Any shred of credibility she may have is completely overwhelmed by this disgusting lapse in judgment. No wonder Rudy wanted out.
Ms. Veto!
Yea, i guess i must have forgotten all the pro america and pro war films that came out in the 40's.
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