Yes, when you publicly humiliate your wife and the mother of your children, that may alienate your children
SON-BURNED RUDY’S TOUGHEST TEST
By NILES LATHEM, New York Post
March 4, 2007—WASHINGTON—Rudy Giuliani’s biggest challenge in his White House run to date could be how he responds publicly to comments his son made about their strained relationship.
Andrew Giuliani, 21, stunningly told The New York Times that he and his father have been estranged—not even talking “for a decent amount of time”—because of the son’s problems with the ex-mayor’s current wife, Judith Nathan Giuliani.
“There’s obviously a little problem that exists between me and his wife,” the Duke University student told the paper. “And we’re trying to figure that out. But as of right now, it’s not working as well as we would like.”
In an interview airing today on ABC’s “Good Morning America Weekend Edition,” he tempered his comments.
“I do not want to hurt him,” he said. “No matter what he’s done, I love my father … It’s not as good as it once was—but it’s better than when it was its loWest, and it’s getting better all the time.”
And while Andrew said he “will not be active in the campaign,” he insisted he still thinks his dad could “make a great president.”
Sources said there’s also tension with Giuliani’s daughter, Caroline, 17. Sources said Giuliani has never visited Andrew at Duke, although others close to the former mayor disputed reports that he skipped his son’s 2005 high school graduation.
Reached by The Post yesterday, Andrew said only, “I’m sticking by what I said already.” His mom, Donna Hanover, didn’t return calls.
Giuliani’s camp didn’t comment, although insiders insisted the problems are the typical of a family of divorce.
Dan Schnur, a GOP consultant, said “most voters have family matters of their own to deal with, so the challenge for Giuliani is less the estrangement than the way he talks about it now in public.”
Insiders said the strain began with Giuliani’s divorce from Hanover, and went downhill after he and Nathan wed in 2003, due to a “series of events.” They included tension between Andrew and Nathan at the wedding and later, the kids’ attempts to get solo time with their dad.
Dan Schnur gives the conventional liberal wisdom of today: We’re all a mess, everyone’s family life is a mess, so what difference does it make if the president’s family life is a mess?
But I say: how can a man whose own life is in such disorder, who has alienated his own children with his despicable behavior (for which he has never shown the slightest signs of remorse; to the contrary, he goes around in a state of perpetual self-congratulation), be trusted to lead the country?
Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 04, 2007 02:47 PM | Send