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.
I have heard others say she is annoying as hell and has a voice like Joan Rivers. I have never seen her other than still pictures. Gotta be something about Judy Nathan that is a potent political liability because you never see her with Rudy at political functions.
"So you're more concerned about what adults are doing in their bedrooms rather than limiting government and lowering taxes."
I didn't say that. I suggest you re-read what I said.
"If that makes me a Loserdopian, or Liberal-tarian, so be it."
Whatever you want to call yourself. Conservative wouldn't have been my first choice either.
Well....the Christian custom is to divorce your spouse BEFORE you get a new girlfriend.
I do not think statistics back up your comments
First you told me she was dying but she wasn't.
"Yeah, that whole wife dying of cancer while you're off having an affair was pretty messy."
Then you told me that they didn't know that.
"But she didn't know that at the time, nor did he."
I just was wondering what sources you are using for that info. you are trying to pass off on me.
I saw her but it wasn't at a political function, he had given a speech in a foreign country and they were touring a site together and being treated like VIP's but quite friendly to Americans and others there, or at least he was. She wasn't at his side when I met him but I saw her several times as they walked around the place.
Well....for me them moral issue is crystal clear...both infidelity and wife beating are wrong. Additionally, in distances under 70 yards my wife is a stone killer with a shotgun. She'd wing me a few times just for funzies before she gave me the coup de grace up close and personal like. She is an emotionally engaging woman.
Infidelity is wrong, but that's not to say it doesn't happen for sound reasons now and then. It's bad business but I know some cheaters who ended up with better mates when the dust settled.
Doesn't that suggest to you that she is a political liability in some manner?
It's like she is trying to remain a non-person in Rudy's political life. Not gonna work.
Luckily, none of them are running for that post.
My wife told me that I can fool around if I get her permission first. I point out women at the mall or at church and she keeps saying no....but one of these days....
{Heck, John Kerry is more pro gun than Rudy.}
With Rudy's treament of his ex-wives, he won't get the "soccer mom" vote. After all, why bother voting for a liberal when you can get the real thing in a RAT. With Rudy being pro-gun control, pro-abortion, and pro-homosexual, the RAT candidates can claim the moral high ground over Rudy. Obama and Edwards are still on their first marriages and love their wives.
you are buying all the spin - how do you know he didn't talk to her about the separation first, because she said so? scorned women don't lie? give me a break.
indeed.
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