2008Central.net’s Presidential Election Podcast (11/26/07)

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Judith Giuliani Criticized In Vanity Fair; Rudy To The Rescue

The 2008 election is unique in many ways.  One example is the large amount of attention that some of the candidates’ spouses have received.  It now seems that it’s Judith Giuliani’s, wife of Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, turn.

The September 2007 issue of Vanity Fair published a very critical examination of the prospective first lady.  It’s certainly worth a read.  Some excerpts:

Drawing the ire of Hillary Clinton at the 1 year memorial ceremony for 9/11…

Inside the tent were Secretary of State Colin Powell, New York governor George Pataki, Richard Grasso, who was then head of the New York Stock Exchange, and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Senator Hillary Clinton stood in the aisle—until she was unceremoniously pushed by a phalanx of four burly cops entering the tent, these guarding Judith Nathan, Giuliani’s girlfriend. No apologies were offered, one observer noted.

“The nerve of that woman!” Hillary exploded, recalling that her own daughter’s Secret Service detail evaporated soon after Bill Clinton left office. Why should an ex-mayor’s girlfriend get such royal treatment? “Who does she think she is?” Hillary said to an observer, who later recounted the story.

On Judith’s medical “expertise”…

It seemed that she had gone to Pennsylvania State nursing school, as The New York Times once reported, but she had not. She completed two years of nursing school [at St. Luke's nursing school], but left hospital work before a year was up. Nonetheless, Giuliani has publicly referred to her “expertise” in “biological and chemical” disasters, and believes she would be a help in the event of an anthrax attack.

On freebies…

She has become used to getting her way. An organizer of a recent fashion shoot received a call from one of Rudy’s business associates warning her to address his wife as Judith. According to this source, Judith became so smitten with the dress she was modeling “that she simply didn’t want to take it off. She didn’t offer to pay. She made it very clear she wanted it for free. You know how it is when someone stalls.” Instead, says this source, Judith kept repeating a kind of mantra: “I’m a sample size, I’m a sample size.”

The fashion insider sighs. “But the problem was the dress was a sample, and the designer’s only sample. But she was very persistent. We had almost a metaphorical tugging of the dress away!” And not just that dress. “There were a number of items she tried on she wanted. There was greed in the air. We finally brokered a deal with the designer to give her some sort of discount for the dress.”

At this point, I don’t think this story is going to develop into any bigger.  She’ll receive a bit of heat for the critical analysis, suggestion and facts in the story, but it should fizzle over time.  However, I do imagine that the Judith question and Rudy’s family life will become more notable factors as the primaries draw near.

Rudy Giuliani is largely ignoring the Vanity Fair article, but based on his reaction to a reporter who inquired about the article, it’s clearly gotten under his skin:

Giuliani said his wife is a wonderful person who helped him through treatment for prostate cancer. “She got me through September 11,” he said.

He chided a reporter for asking about the story.

“One of the terrible prices that unfortunately families pay in a situation like this is they get castigated and attacked,” he said. “And, usually, most reporters don’t even ask about it. They actually have more dignity than to even ask about it.”

[Photo Credit: BBC]