Rudy catches a buss from wife Judi in Florida Tuesday night.
Posted on 02/01/2008 7:14:05 AM PST by Liz
Rudy catches a buss from wife Judi in Florida Tuesday night.
She brought enough political baggage to fill a Louis Vuitton trunk. Indeed, part of Rudy Giuliani's presidential flameout can be traced back to his Judi - the woman he fell for in a cigar bar in 1999 while he was the married mayor with a wife and two young children at home. "She was a major part of the reason for Giuliani's collapse," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
"Rudy wanted to head up the 'family values' party, and Judi didn't fit that label. Even worse, Giuliani was estranged from his children. Their refusal to campaign for him spoke volumes to voters."
Among the low notes that brought national embarrassment to the one-time GOP frontrunner: her use of taxpayer-funded NYPD detectives as personal valets and chauffeurs while she was the mayor's mistress; revelations of a secret past marriage; and interrupting Giuliani's speech to the National Rifle Association with a cutesy cell phone call to say hi.
Mike McKeon, the campaign aide who was in charge of handling Mrs. Giuliani's national "roll-out" last March, said that despite her lack of campaign chops, she was an experienced public speaker who would remain on the trail. "Judith is nothing but an asset, and, as the campaign continues, she's going to be a larger and larger asset," he had said. "She'll be one of our key surrogates." Never happened. Judith Giuliani was rolled back inside the campaign tent as fast as she was rolled out.
Doubts emerged early about the former pharmaceutical sales rep's ability to be a polished stand-in for her husband. At her first public appearance, a March fund-raiser in Manhattan, an unscripted Mrs. Giuliani rambled in front of 1,000 supporters. Guests winced when she talked about their first dates (he was a married man) and her ability to "pick up the phone as Judith Giuliani" and get the rich and famous to donate to her pet causes. The rest of the month did not go much better.
The former mayor's 21-year-old son, Andrew, said he would not be campaigning for his dad. "There's obviously a little problem that exists between me and his wife," he told an interviewer, exposing a deep family rift that remains.
Ten days later, the Daily News unearthed evidence of Judi's earlier Las Vegas marriage, forcing her to concede she had been married not twice, but three times. Giuliani also had to retract a comment during a Barbara Walters interview that, if elected, he'd allow his wife - a graduate of a two-year nursing program with no college degree - to sit in on cabinet meetings. Press accounts were not flattering either, describing the 53-year-old Hazleton, Pa., native as a social climber who liked to spend Giuliani's post-9/11 cash.
In a Vanity Fair profile last fall, a Giuliani aide remarked that an "entire airplane seat was needed for Judith's 'Baby Louis' - a reference to her expensive Louis Vuitton handbag - which sits in solitary splendor on her travels." Except for the past few weeks, where a doting Judith accompanied her husband on the stump in Florida, she largely remained behind the scenes.
Speaking to supporters in Orlando Tuesday night after he placed a distant third in a state where he once held a commanding lead, Giuliani turned first to his Judith, thanking her "for being a loving, patient and supportive partner." "Rudy would have been in this boat even without her," said a longtime Giuliani associate. "But she wasn't an asset. She brought a lot of it on herself."
Married Rudy met Judi at a cigar bar. She soon became his mistress and Rudy began porking Judi on the public dime, hiding the theft of public services in obscure city agencies, then lying about it to voters. The tax-paid NYPD was chauffering Judi on shopping trips, trips to Pennsy to see her parents, and walking her dog. Word was Judy called the NYPD to pick up her friends for shopping trips even when she was not with them.
Judi was gowned, bejeweled and groomed like a princess and lived royally in a posh NYC apt and a Hamptons condo, yet she had no visible means of support leading some to conclude her living expenses were also paid for by taxpayers.
Unzipped Rudy is something else. Mayor Rudy had no qualms parading Jooty around at official events. And he almost gleefully caused the public humiliation of his then-wife by dumping her at a news conference without even telling her. He tried to dump his two young kids out in the streets---saying he was dividing the Mayoral mansion in two---to move in his mistress. His wife prevailed and got a court to declare the Mayoral home was their marital home. Rooty moved out and into a gay couple's apt.
Giuliani's messy personal life is a big turnoff to women voters. It makes wives and moms around the country skeptical of putting him in the White House. If Rooty can't control his zipper, how can he control the country?
One news poll found 50% of women overall - and 48% of GOP women - were less likely to vote for Giuliani because he publicly humiliated and dumped his second wife at a 2000 press conference without telling her first. Lots of women say Giuliani's assigning seven tax-funded bodyguards/drivers to his girlfriend while his wife was still NYC's First Lady was EVEN WORSE than Rudy's public humiliation of the mother of his children.
"Rotten" is a word that came up again and again when women refer to Rudy. Rooty's "family values" are nonexistent----an astounding 88% of those polled had a problem with Rooty not attending his own son's graduation.
Rooty and Jooty's tawdry private life epitomizes Planned Parenthood's condomized Fully Fornicating society (abortion-worshipper Giuliani donated to PPhood; NARAL donated to Mayor Rudy's campaign then honored Rooty's exhaustive efforts to advance abortion rights.)
He should’ve taken a few less phone calls from her, that’s for sure.
His campaign was bizarre.
I still say it was his strategy that did him in more than anything. Not saying whether or not he'd be the frontrunner if he'd done it differently, but he'd probably still be in it.
No, Rudy was a major part of the reason for Rudy's collapse.
Judi was just one in another long examples of why the man can't be trusted. Blaming her lets him off the hook.
Why can’t the media accept that Rudy is just too liberals for Republicans? It’s that simple.
Thankfully this bastard is gone now.
Judy can have him all to herself.
I have to admit that when I saw the two of them on TV a few days ago, I recoiled at the sight of her. She doesn’t have any business taking Laura Bush’s place. Now that I think of it, among the spouses still in the race, Mitt Romney’s wife would do the best job of coming close to filling Laura’s shoes.
Ever hear of Bill Clinton?
Clinton got women to vote for him. Oh wait, that was because Hillary wouldn't divorce him which she only did because she wanted power and the really big payoff is in sight for her.
True. Rudy is Clinton with his pants off.
IIRC, there was another whore he was seeing before Judy.
All evidence to the contrary. The GOP seems to like liberals these days, what with the conservatives all having dropped out due to not getting any votes, and the party being left with McCain, Romney, Huckabee, and a kook.
Giuliani also had to retract a comment during a Barbara Walters interview that, if elected, he’d allow his wife - a graduate of a two-year nursing program with no college degree - to sit in on cabinet meetings
LOL LOL LOL
Not to mention, even though it may be a sham marriage, the Clintons have only been married to each other. Rudy has two previous, embarrassingly messy divorces.
As one pundit put it---his campaign was a mix of arrogance and ignorance.
He had a sneering contempt for the electorate stupidly thinking they could not see through his campaign facade.
For example-----another laugh-a-thon---- Today, Giuliani says he was "aware" his strategy of bypassing early primary states carried high risks. "We were defying conventional wisdom. We had no choice but to do that. I wasn't going to change my positions"........
This is better known as Rudy's Kicking Conservatives to the Curb By Destroying the Repub Party Strategy.
The be-all and end-all of his campign was to religiously cleanse the Repub Party and throw conservatives off the party lifeboat---based on the ignorant assumprtion that conservatives were going to rollover and play dead. That didn't happen--conservatives are the ones that defeated this unremitting liberal fraud.
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Let's not ever, ever forget----Giuliani rigorously competed in every primary/and caucus state, spent $60 million and garnered one delegate. His so-called "withdrawal" from the race was not of his own volition---he campaigned 61 days straight in Fla and finished a distant third.
The more voters saw and heard this charlatan, the more his candidacy nosedived. Good riddance.
“No, Rudy was a major part of the reason for Rudy’s collapse.”
I agree. Also, he whines like a dem.
Unstated is that character seems to matter to GOP primary voters, but not to our good friends on the other side of the aisle.
this thread is the most enjoyable i have visited in days now!! LOLOL!!!
Rudy is now history.
How long until he divorces the latest bimbo?
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