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.
So you're more concerned about what adults are doing in their bedrooms rather than limiting government and lowering taxes.
If that makes me a Loserdopian, or Liberal-tarian, so be it.
Who, at this point, do you wish is the nominee? McCain? Romney?
At this point, I honestly have no idea, but I don't want Giuliani, McCain or Romney.
The American way to address the criminals is to neuter the criminals, not trash the liberty of the law abiding and decent. Why is this so damned hard for you city slickers to understand? I reckon we could reduce rapes, using the same path, couldn't we?
Don't you even care about the decent citizens who give up their self defense rights?
Which represents your view about state laws
regarding same sex couples:
Allow Allow Grant No
to Marry Civil Unions Legal
Reognition
Registered voters 36% 33% 27%
Democrats 50% 28% 19%
Republicans 18% 33% 44%
Non-partisans 33% 43% 19%
"Most conservatives don't want Rudy.
I'm SO glad my vote cancels out yours!!!"
True conservatives don't vote for former Liberal Party candidates; but to some I guess winning is what's important, even if it means selling one's soul to do so.
I remember Donna Hanover from a food show I used to watch on occasion, In Food Today. It was pretty terrible, but I only watched for David Rosengarten. She always seemed like she was really P.O.'ed about something.
You folks brought on Nancy Pelosi...I didn't....
All the problems with the dole would go away tomorrow, if the dole went away first.
I could care less what Hanover, known best as Rudy's ex and an actress in The Vagina Monologues, has to say. Both seem to be at fault in the marriage so she shouldn't throw stones.
Who's next?
More Macacca from the Free Republic Left Wing Support Faction.
It's entirely possible she is a loathsome woman who alienated him. Freepers continue to make the mistake that a guy who cheats is in the wrong: he certainly behaved badly, but it's entirely possible he had a terrible mate at home and sought affection elsewhere.
He behaved "badly", but with a possible good reason.
Did you forget the sarcasm tag?
Nice try.
Rudy's a good guy and he's been a great team player; he's just got too much baggage.
This kind of stuff even matters to some democrats.
What the heck are you talking about? Link to what? Any source to what? Do you speak english?
Sure he lived with a gay couple.
So, what, he has cooties now?
Oh and don't forget the issue of the NAU. Speaking as future Supreme Emperor, I don't want that issue off the table anytime soon.
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