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.
And turning the general election into a second Democrat primary...
An NH poll is useless before Iowa. NH polls are notorious for going towards the leader and then against him after Iowa.
I am surprised at how much support Mitt is getting at this stage given the lack of name recognition compared to Rudy and McCain.
The story I read said Rudy thought this was his third cousin and was shocked to find out she was his second cousin.
Right now McCain is leading Rudy in NH 29/25%.
Sometimes Iowa has NH as its boy toy, and sometimes not. It depends on the tone of the campaign, and what is emphasized, and what is not, and what the polls are showing as to who seems most likely to beat the Dem. But among the big three, winning Iowa probably would be a substantial plus, if it was reasonably decisive.
Thanks.
Romney's wife, Ann, has MS.
I can't remember where Romney fell in the latest poll, but it was substantially lower than the two front runners. They explained this morning, on Fox, that the way the primaries are laid out this time, it's the candidate with a lot of money who can literally run from state to state and venue to venue who is going to win, they are laid out to benefit money and go against the smaller, underfunded candidates.
Arnold wants the California primary moved up to February. :) California is the best fit for Rudy after New York itself. I would love to see a California GOP primary poll of the contenders.
Its not. Never said it was either. While I think the illegal immigration issue is more of a social issue, then a fiscal issue, it has far reaching ramifications across the board.
I think Rudy would put California into play for the GOP this time around. That's a lot of points.
FDR was her 5th cousin. Not exactly close.
To be a second cousin, you must share a great-grandparent. Not exactly close either.
We agree...
I was pointing out the fallacies of the "no social issues" crowd...
There is no way I would vote for Julie-Annie, even if he won both the Democrat and Republican primaries...
It's a huge fiscal issue. Just more hidden so people don't see what it is really costing them in increase health insurance costs, auto insurance costs, school taxes, etc.
My husband and I just watched a TV movie about Rudy while on a Jet Blue flight. It starred James Woods and my husband felt it was a real hit piece. It was about his handling of 9-11 but had a lot of coverage of his marriage to Donna. With respect to his marriage, he looked just awful. She came out the heroine.
For the Pubbies, there's no Vilsack to make Iowa irrelevant. Iowa usually produces 3 viable candidates, I think it will produce only 2 in the GOP.
Usually there will be a big gap between NH and the rest. Not so this year, especially for the Dems. That plays to Hillary's advantage. She makes the Iowa caucuses irrelevant, downplays the cranky NH voters and then goes to the bigger states running nothing but TV ads. She needs to avoid retail campaigning at all costs.
For the Republicans, this works in favor of McCain, he has a lot of big donor money. He could be defeated by a (1976) Reagan, someone supported uniformly by the grassroots of the party, but if Romney cannot stake out that ground alone, he won't be able to overcome that natural advantage.
When you seek the Presidency, your life becomes an open book. For all her faults, Rudy hardly handled it well.
The length of this thread (and all Rudy threads) indicate how deeply divided Republicans are on Rudy.
I like him. I can get past some of his liberal leanings because I think he would be a tough S.O.B on terrorism and right now that's my major concern.
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