Geoffrey Feiger and Donald Trump
Geoffrey Feiger and Donald Trump
Detroit News columnist Neal Rubin is not the first to compare Donald Trump with Metro Detroit's own version -- homegrown, mouthy attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who also has a lushly flamboyant head of hairstyle.
But Rubin actually talks to Fieger about it:
The closest thing to Donald Trump in Michigan politics is also the furthest thing from him.
Lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, the Democratic candidate for governor in 1998, said he could get Trump elected president — but he won’t, for a list of reasons that includes terms like “shallow” and “severe personality defect.”
Like Trump, who will speak today at the Detroit Economic Club, Fieger had never run for office before he blew past all the predictable candidates and won the nomination. Like Trump, he was a recognizable figure with a core of devoted followers, but an unfavorability rating measured at more than 60 percent.
Like Trump, he blithely insulted his opponents and the party insiders he needed as allies — though unlike Trump, he did it in complete, articulate sentences. “I like the fact that Trump is outside of government,” said Fieger, who became nationally known in the 1990s for repeatedly and successfully defending Jack Kevorkian. “I like the fact that Trump is beholden to no one.”
The only problem is everything else.
“I could have advised him early on,” said Fieger, 65.
Fieger says he'd have coached Trump on governmental processes and foreign relations “to pass the Sarah Palin test” and how to appear presidential.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to be deferential,” Fieger said. “Some way, somehow, somewhere, you have to appear vulnerable. And he hates to appear vulnerable.”
