Happy Monday, you worker bees! Gwen here, continuing to trudge through the dredges of the internet so that you don’t have to.
Today’s profile is of Rudy Giuliani, and this man has quite a sordid past. Family drama, multiple divorces, law-firm scandals, political maneuvering, 9-11, and some serious fundraising. Simmering this big pot of information down into something palatable has been an adventure. Read all about Rudy’s life and times below the cut! Hallelujah!
Semi-boring facts:
This Brooklyn-born lawyer and politician is currently seeking the Republican nomination for 2008. After graduating from NYU law school in 1968, Giuliani worked his way up from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, working in DC and New York, eventually becoming the Associate Attorney General under Reagan in 1981. He switched his party registration from his Democratic roots to Independent in 1975, and then to Republican in 1980. After a first unsuccessful run for Mayor of NYC in 1989, he succeeded and was inaugurated Mayor in 1993, and was re-elected in 1997. Rudy Giuliani is famous for ‘cleaning up’ the city through broad police crackdowns on crime and unpleasant behavior, and also for his actions after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The initial praise and appreciation for Giuliani’s leadership post-9/11 was followed by criticism of the clean-up process, health-problems of rescue workers, and the amount of money Giuliani made on speaking engagements during that year. Giuliani announced a bid to run for the NY Senate seat in 2000, but withdrew due to health problems (prostate cancer). Since leaving office as Mayor, Giuliani has done extensive campaigning for Republicans all over the country, and has continued to work for his own private security consulting business and for the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani. Whew.
What he stands for:
Giuliani is kind of an odd duck, because he is a Republican with some very liberal views. He’s pro-choice and pro-gay rights, having passed legislation to help same-sex partners in NYC during his run as Mayor – although he does not support gay marriage. He supports Bush’s plan for Iraq and is against early withdrawal. The ‘issues’ section of his webpage says that he supports “strict constructionist judges” in Supreme Court; I’m not sure what that means. He supports restrictions on partial-birth abortions, but thinks it’s a personal choice. He’s pro-guns (likes the 2nd amendment), and wants to cut taxes.
Personal Tragedy:
Rudy’s definitely had a rollercoaster love life. He married his first wife (second cousin Regina Peruggi) in 1968 and was divorced/annulled in 1982/1983. He then married Donna Hanover (a local TV personality) in 1984 and they had two kids. He messed around on her first with his communications director, Cristyne Lategano, and then with Judith Nathan, a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company. After a messy divorce trial, Hanover was given custody of the kids and a big chunk of cash in 2002. Giuliani and Judith Nathan were married in 2003 – it was the third marriage for them both, and he gained a stepdaughter. Giuliani’s kids (who are in college) are estranged – evidently he missed out on most of their lives, and they haven’t taken part in his campaign. Way to be a bad dad, Rudy.
Giuliani’s struggle with prostate cancer was widely publicized – his health is stable after having treated the cancer with radioactive-seed-implantation. It pretty much nixed his attempt at running for Senator.
Potentially Offensive Remarks:
I’ve run out of time for this, I’ll find some tomorrow. Maybe.
Random Factoids:
Giuliani has two movies (one of them a documentary) about him, and had a cameo in Adam Sandler’s movie Anger Management.
Wikipedia says that Rudy’s dad was a crazy guy – had trouble holding down a job, served time in Sing Sing for felony assault and robbery, and afterwards was an enforcer for his brother’s Mafia loan-sharking-gambling organization in Brooklyn!
In undergrad, Giuliani minored in Philosophy, toyed with the idea of becoming a Catholic priest, and was in the Phi Rho Pi fraternity.
Giuliani popularized the ‘perp walk’ while he was a federal prosecutor, where you drag a recently-arrested suspect down of a gauntlet of hungry photographers and reporters.
He almost got whacked by the mob in 1986, and has some pretty fly duds available on the Rudy Gear section of his website, not the least of which is a Rudy ’08 baseball bat (shown with optional bat holder).
Giuliani Resources:
Delightful Giuliani Photos:
Official Photo:
Speechifying:
Famously, in drag:
with third wife:
I tried to find pictures of him with either of his first/second wives, but it’s almost impossible.
Simpsons’ style:
Cartoon:
eXtreme eXchange 
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