The Daily Background

The Rudy 2008 campaign unveiled their newly redesigned website today. Despite a substantial facelift, the new website still does not mention that Mr Giuliani has two children, or his colorful past. The only wife of his it mentions is his current one, Judith Nathan. I mentioned this phenomenon in a piece I wrote for Truthout.org about Giuliani earlier this month:

Gay roommates aside, nobody can say that Rudy isn’t a family man. He’s had plenty of families. He’s even married into his own family: in 1982 he sought an annulment from his first wife, whom he suddenly discovered was actually his second cousin. This, after they had already been married for 14 years. No doubt an awkward conversation between the two (who had once spent childhood vacations together) followed that revelation.

Or perhaps there wasn’t a conversation at all. Giuliani’s second wife found out that her husband was seeking a divorce from her by way of the ever-gentle New York City press corps after he abruptly made the announcement at a press conference one day. By this time the couple had had two kids and he had allegedly cheated on her with two other women - one a staff member, the other a “very good friend” who eventually became his third wife. It was between divorcing his second wife and marrying the next that Giuliani had moved in with the gay couple with whom he had met and “hit it off” during his first failed bid for City Hall, years earlier.

For some reason, the biography on Giuliani’s official web site mentions none of this. In fact, it does not even mention that Rudy has children. When contacted for comment on this specifically, the Giuliani campaign promised to return a phone call (they did not).

Incidentally, of the 2008 Presidential candidates with children, Mr Giuliani and Representative Kucinich are the only ones not to mention their children on their websites. Kucinich has had three wives as well.

Filed under: Presidential election, Z-TDB Blog