Rudy Giuliani - henpecked husband?

John Fund has a devastating article today about Rudy Giuliani and the problems that his wife is posing for his campaign. It all comes back to that phone call during the NRA speech. It turns out that this wasn't something that had happened a few times, but dozens of times.

The fact is that people inside the Giuliani campaign are appalled at the number of times their candidate has felt compelled to interrupt public appearances to take calls from his wife. The estimate from those in a position to know is that he has taken such calls more than 40 times in the middle of speeches, conferences and presentations to large donors. "If it's a stunt, it's not one coming from him," says one Giuliani staffer. "It's an ongoing problem that he won't take advice on."

And in trying to explain his odd behavior, Mr. Giuliani has only dug himself in deeper. On Friday he told David Brody of CBN News that since 9/11, when he and Mrs. Giuliani get on a plane, "most of the time . . . we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other." He admitted he had taken calls from his wife "before in engagements, and I didn't realize it would create any kind of controversy." That's hardly possible. Giuliani staffers say he has been warned over and over again that the phone calls are rude and inappropriate and have alienated everyone from local officials to top donors to close friends.

Sorry, either his wife is a shrew whom he doesn't dare say no to or Giuliani is so self-centered and naturally rude that he doesn't have a clue how offensive his behavior is. There is no excuse for such repeated rudeness.

Perhaps good manners is not the most important quality that we're looking for in the next president, but I think that people want to "like" the person they vote for. And if he seems like a lout or someone being led around by his spouse, he's going to really lose the likability votes. And there do seem to be some intimations that his wife is rather a piece of work.

But Giuliani staffers say Judith Giuliani is in a league of her own. Many of the complaints are inside baseball: Staffers have been fired, advisers shut out of meetings, schedules changed based on her whim. But it was her idea for Mr. Giuliani to suggest on national TV that he might let her attend cabinet meetings. Her high-handed behavior prompted a series of negative profiles this summer, including a vicious one in Vanity Fair, which were said to have prompted her to retreat from day-to-day involvement in the campaign.

But not for long. The staff remains "terrified" of her, according to a former staffer. "Mollifying Judith is at the top of the to-do list for far too many people on the campaign," one person close to Mr. Giuliani told me. Another says: "The biggest concern is that if not corrected it will stir up questions about his judgment closer to when people vote--either before the early primaries or before the general election. It's a ticking time bomb."

Of course, if Republicans were voting based on the spouse, Mitt Romney would be ahead by a mile. But Judith just doesn't seem like the woman we'd like to see follow Laura Bush as First Lady. And why should Rudy need aides to tell him about good manners?