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.
That's if you believe Donna Hanover. I don't. Say what you want about Rudy -- most of it would be true -- Donna is worse.
"Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" looks far better than Rudy in drag.
If she's a conservative Republican, I'd vote for Elvira. She's cool.
> We're not voting for a saint or a virgin, we're voting for someone who's tough and smart and electable
There's a difference between a normal "non-saint" and someone with chronic infidelity and honesty problems.
Last thing we need is another bout of Clinton style ethics in the White House.
It's just fun to sling mud, you know.
Sell your soul for "electable." Why don't we just woo Obama from the Dems with $$$ and a chairmanship. After all, his great smile makes him very electable, and he goes to church. /sarc
IMO, Rudy would be fine as Secretary of Defense, National Security Advisor or Secretary of Homeland Security -- basically something that wouldn't be screwed up by his liberal views.
"Your" doesn't mean you personally, but the party. >_<
Except, of course, for The Hildabeaste.
Oh yeah, McCain is just a WONDERFUL guy, he divorced the wife who waited faithfully (a woman who was crippled) while he was a POW and immediately married the daughter of a very wealthy man and ran for office. The daughter ended up a few years ago accused of stealing drugs from a charity but got off because she was "addicted". Yeah, McCain is a real saint he is.
Lucky you!
I won't hide it. I am a big Rudy fan. He was tested and came out with flying colors.
He's not perfect. The stupid "no vote" idiots on this site guaranteed the Dem victory.
Pelosi and her crowd are going to cut funding for our troops. The "no vote" idiots have blood on their hands.
Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, has MS. You will find this video interesting if you haven't seen it already: Probably the toughest day in our life...
2nd Cousin? No Problem!
Liberal? No Problem!
Treats Women like ashtrays (Clinton Like) No Problem!
THERE IS NOTHING that can change these "Rudy for President" Freepers opinions. They support him because they are Liberal. They are part of the shift in America to the left. Thanks to their support, America going to have a tough time in the next 20 years.
Lets crush those stupid conservative voters and openly support a Liberal for the GOP two years out!
I am glad that these Freepin Liberals have come out of the closet.
He cheated on her. That alone is enough where I would never vote for him.
Concur about the saint/virgin part, but tough/smart/electable doesn't mean squat unless the politics of the candidate in question are conservative. .....and Rudy's qualifications on that front are highly questionable, to put it mildly.
Nothing illegal really.
If you like inbred relatives, I GUESS IT IS JUST FINE AND DANDY!
Myself, I won't vote for him and it is not because of incest...
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