They spawn.... 
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.
What do you mean by "on the dock"? As to running room, not at all. It is difficult to say if you support or oppose something without even a definition.
Here is the Field Poll from last year with registered California voters:
Interesting results. About what I would expect from Field who has a history of leaning left and attempting to influence public opinion (instead of just reporting it).
My guess is Prop 22 would still pass today, although by less than the 61% it did in 2000.
BTW, if she was surprised about the divorce notification, she was the only one in all of New York. Their inevitable divorce was common watercooler discussion for months.
Just why is Northern Arizona Univeristy an issue? Did you stay in Flagstaff in an no-tell motel or roach-motel or what? I prefer Williams myself.
Rudy will crush the opposition in a GOP primary in California, IMO.
That's what they want you to think it is. They are sneaky devils. Me, I'm up for a kinder, gentler international conspiracy.
No doubt----one Big Clue is that you never see Rudy/Judy together on the campaign trail. He must be afraid to have her seen in public.
(Laura was at GWB's side throughout his campaigns.)
What isthe prblem with marrying a cousin cannot see a problem myself
That helps explain the Royal Family.
Big whoop.
I realize California-style social liberalism matches your "progressive" ideal of all that is good to be foisted upon the American people. But there is a still a large, powerful, and vibrant conservative population that doesn't agree with you or the Schwarzenegger Republicans on this point.
For a New York Italian , Rudy sure has alot of West Virginia Hillbilly behavior in him...Banging his cousin and marrying her then he marries someone else then bring his girlfiend to the house where his wife and kids live..
Only thing he needed to complete the picture was a Ford Galaxie 500 up on cinder blocks with a pit bull chained to the bumper..
Time will tell. Let the games begin.
They spawn....
Think Rudy has a still down his basement?
LOL. I post about Rudy, you ask my position on civil unions for gays.
I ask for clarification on your post to my response ("on the dock"), and you post about Rudy winning the California primary.
What we have here is a failure to communicate. ;-)
No kidding - I lived in nyc for 33 years, including all of Rudy's tenure. She was a thorn in his side going into his 2nd term.
Were FDR and Eleanor cousins? I think so, but I don't know if they were 2nd cousins.
It's always interesting sparing with you on FR because you're on the left fringe (of FR) and I'm on the right.
I have not been entirely courteous to you. I used you. I wanted to know that a hard core "conservative" thought about gays, and unions, to then point out, that half of GOP folks in California favor the same. You were "on the dock" as my exhibit, and handled it very well. Kudos. Not guilty!
Following that argument to conclusion if you played with someone of the opposite sex as a child you could not consider an intimate relationship with them later in life - that is plain crazy IMHO.
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