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.
shuuuush. You're not supposed to say that. He told Arafat to get out of town and a Sheiek to shove $10 million - that's enough. :-)
*****The guy is a gun confiscationist, anti 2nd Amendment. What makes anyone trust him with the U.S. Armed Services?****
Now stop it. Gun grabbing is sign of 'toughness' and national defense expertise. Why the first thing he'll do is just take the Terrorists guns away by a U.N. resolution - that'll show those guys like Mullah Omar! 
Well per another thread, sperm banks want both of us. :)
"Let me in on what's wrong or illegal or unseemly about marrying a 2nd cousin. I've forgotten."
You cannot seriously say you do not see any humor value in this fact?
I mean, jokes like "What is the difference between a sophisticated NY Mayor, presidential candidate and a West Virginia trailer park....." practically write themselves.
I thought Donald Rumsfeld did 1000 times the job anyone could have done that day...
Does the man who bleeds on the battlefield risk any less???
People who live in New York City talk about his cleaning up the city, making it safe and what a difference there is now from how far it had deteriorated prior to Rudy. If that's his version gun-grabbing, it's not a bad thing. He went after the mob and criminals and corruption.
Republicans do not tolerate candidates with that kind of personal flaw.
And MSM wouldn't ignore it either.
Then we disagree.
Donna & Ed Oster
Oster, a lawyer with three grown daughters
Hanover, a journalist and actress who hosts a syndicated television show, with acting credits on television shows such as "Law & Order" and the movie "The People vs. Larry Flynt."
They currently have a bi-coastal marriage, with Hanover living in New York, where her children attend school, and Oster in Newport Beach, Calif., where his practice is.
They see each other every week. Either she flies to Newport Beach or he flies to New York City.
"Yeah, that whole wife dying of cancer while you're off having an affair was pretty messy."
She had cancer, but she wasn't dying, I think she is still around.
It has always been my experience to just kill the enemy and worry about my orders later...
Of course, you know so little about it... symbolism over substance...
Oooh. I like that kind of talk.
I give Thompson and Brownback a zero chance. Have you ever heard Brownback speak?
I'm just counting those who could win at least one primary. I want to emphasize how useless a Hunter or Tancredo run is. I can't say I've had the pleasure of a Brownback speech. I do doubt he has a chance of winning the nomination.
I would not stoop so low as to insult someone I disagreed with. Apparently, you do not take that route.
As I expected....
I'm saving myself for marriage.
Not for mine, of course, I want in on some of that desperate housewife action.
However, he should have run against Hillary for her in '06 or perhaps take on Schumer. The Senate is the highest he is going to be able to achieve unless he's willing to accept a VP seat.
Have they purchased enough carbon offsets to mitigate their air pollution???
My 2nd Amendment and other constitutional rights do not end at the New York city limits, no matter who the mayor is...
as the title for my next story? :)
"I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here." -- Don Henley, Dirty Laundry
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