Rudy and Judy Giuliani: Secret Marriage Makes Six

The Republican presidential front-runner's campaign took a salacious turn recently when the New York press reported that Judy Giuliani, Rudy's ubiquitous and bubbly other half, has in fact been married thrice and not twice as was previously understood by those who follow such matters.

That makes a grand total of six nuptials among the prospective future First Couple, which is three times as many as Mr. and Mrs. George W. Bush and, yes, three times as many as the matrimonially challenged Mr. and Mrs. Bill Clinton.

Not that marriage history ought to be a determining factor in one's presidential fitness, but just for fun let's tally up the individual histories of Rudy and Judy.

Rudy:

Marriage No. 1 to his second cousin Regina Peruggi, annulled after 14 years when Giuliani said he had not received proper dispensation from the church to marry his relative. There also were allegations he cheated on Peruggi, according to information listed on a "vulnerability study" the Giuliani camp conducted prior to his 1993 run for New York mayor. The document is listed on smokinggun.com

Marriage No. 2 to Donna Hanover, with whom he has two children and divorced in 2002. Giuliani's open affair with then-Judith Nathan caused a deep fissure in his family, and his children have not appeared on the campaign trail with him. Son Andrew told the New York press, "I learned my values from my mother."

Judy:

Marriage No. 1, we now learn, was not to Bruce Nathan as we had once thought but rather to a fellow named Jeffrey Scott Ross, whom she married in Las Vegas back in 1974 and divorced in 1979.

Marriage No. 2 came just months after No. 1 bit the dust, as she married Nathan, a union that lasted 13 years and produced an adopted daughter.

Not a pretty picture, to be sure, but does any of this on its face make Rudy less fit for the presidency?

We should hope not.

Yet it seems like someone here is not playing fair when it comes to the politics-of personal-lives game, and it looks this time to be the Republicans.

Sanctimonious GOPers savaged Bill Clinton for his personal indiscretions, stupid cigar tricks and alleged sexual assaults, yet seem to be giving Rudy a free pass. A legendary Lothario himself, Rudy has had to confront barely a snicker over his infidelities and peccadilloes, not to mention his penchant for cross-dressing and positions on social issues that can only be described as Jane Fonda-friendly.

No wonder the now-multiply married Newt Gingrich (he of the '90s mantra that "character counts") doesn't want personal lives to be part of presidential campaigns anymore.

Should Hillary Clinton have announced that she too had a secret marriage, the national press would have brutalized her.

But all the Republicans can seem to do at this point is keep chanting "Ru-dy, Ru-dy, Ru-dy."

But a presidential candidate who married his cousin and has boldly flaunted his marital indiscretions?

Perhaps someone should be chanting "Jer-ry, Jer-ry, Jer-ry."