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.
During Rudy's cancer treatment Donna went out of her way to bring him nothing but misery. She was a self centered b*tch who wanted to hang out with the dem libs, like her good friend Eve Ensler of Vagina Monologues fame.
I wasn't aware of that. Truly despicable. I can't say I've walked a mile in the man's shoes, but to abandon my poor wife because she becomes crippled...
My mother had MS, my father never abandoned her. I will work night and day to see that this man never makes it to the Presidency. Even if I have to accept a guy like Romney.
I have mentioned Newt and Rudy's personal baggage will keep them unelectable and was attacked for it.
Guiliani missed his chance when he choose not to run against Hillary for the Senate seat.
Guiliani would make a great NY Senator and a lousy President.
Julie-Annie will do anything to rid himself of women after he's done with them.
Rudy's marriage to his cousin gets even wierder than the article suggests----he tried to have the marriage annuled, claiming "he did not know" she was his cousin. Guess when she referred to his parents as her aunt and uncle, that wasn't a clue (/sarc).
The article says Hanover forced Rudy out of Gracie Mansion. But that was AFTER he tried to put her and his biological children out on the streets........so he could move his lover into the Mayor's mansion.
> Apparently so for one of the greatest President's of modern day is in the 30% range in real time.
I don't understand... do you mean Reagan because he was divorced?
Being divorced is not great, but not terrible-- we're talking here about rampant infidelity and announcing a split in a press conference.
No, I mean we have a present POTUS with conviction, happily married, and is in the tank in the poll's.
How did you mindfully bring RWR into it??
Guess what Eleanor Roosevelt's maiden name was.
Rudy would have mde an outstanding Governor of NY
Isn't Rudy a Roman Catholic? I must have missed the part during the ceremony: "and until death do you part... or until your wife becomes a b*tch and another hot piece of a$$ catches your eye."
[puke]
Are you from Kentucky?
lol. It caused me to have to read it again. I can't believe him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There will still be people saying that he is the best we have for President of the United States. I find that soooo sad!
And of course, the wife would never ever lie or misrepresent anything either. Right?????????
"And, there are Rudy supporters on FR who decry Newt's "personal baggage." Rudy is no different, just much farther to the left."
I like Rudy but his baggage is many times worse than Newt's. Newt has a messy period in his history, but Rudy sounds like he has basic character and judgment flaws that are a big part of who he is, and that ain't good.
> How did you mindfully bring RWR into it??
You said "one of the greatest President's of modern day" -- Reagan immediately came to mind :-)
I agree, if one cannot remain faithful and trustworthy within the home, how can we trust him to lead us.
Now, if he has sought forgivenss from God and the people he sinned against that would be another story. I know of people that have turned their life around in that way.
Either way he is too left for me and I am not happy with the candidates the GOP are presenting.
Tancredo and Hunter are both outstanding candidates. I only hope one of them can win the presidential bid, I know however, it is a long shot.
Exactly. Presumably that's why he needs a "secret campaign plan" ... "How to act conservative long enough to fool the voters."
It's worked for others ...
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