Jack Lessenberry: Fieger still political

Jack Lessenberry

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Jack Lessenberry

November 20, 2011

By JACK LESSENBERRY Syndicated Columnist The Record Eagle Tue Feb 14, 2012, 10:06 AM EST

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Geoffrey Fieger, the man best known for making Jack Kevorkian a household name, holds out a newspaper article. "Look at this!" he shouts.

"Did you ever see anything like this?" the attorney said, holding out a story about GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain. "He says God told him to run. Then he says he told him, 'You've got the wrong man,' and God says, 'Run anyway.' Where do they get these people!"

He was less disgusted than contemptuously amused. "You know, when you go to any mental institution, the No. 1 thing you hear is that God speaks to them. Has there ever been a time when there was a lower level of people running for national office in this country?"

These days, Fieger is mostly in the news when he wins gigantic medical malpractice verdicts. A $144 million one last month may be the biggest civil case of its kind in history.

Today, many voters and even some of his clients don't remember that he was the 1998 Democratic nominee for governor.

But the state's most flamboyant lawyer says he still cares -- passionately -- about what's happening. Nationally, yes, but especially here. "The main problem here is that the state of Michigan has never had, for any significant time, quality leadership," he said.

"That's partly the voters' fault, but also the fact that there are no reporters any more. The newspapers are a joke. Where are today's Eric Sevareids or Andy Rooneys?" he asks, noting that he allowed "60 Minutes" to interview Kevorkian on the condition that the late Mr. Rooney would be the reporter.

Though his image has often been that of a showman, Fieger has in fact been interested in politics for years. His father was a well-respected civil liberties attorney; his mother, a successful organizer for the American Federation of Teachers.

After winning national fame by keeping Kevorkian out of jail, Fieger decided to run for governor in 1998. He spent lavishly by the standards of the day -- $6 million from his own pocket -- and stunned the Democratic establishment by winning the primary.

His general election campaign was, however, less than successful; he lost in a landslide to Gov. John Engler. Today, he says "it was the right time for me personally to run but the wrong time politically. Engler was able to claim that he was responsible for the prosperity that, if anything, was due to (President) Clinton's policies."

The attorney's campaign was, suffice it to say, unorthodox. The incumbent governor refused to debate, after Fieger said he wouldn't believe the governor was the father of his then-infant triplet daughters, unless they had "corkscrew tails."

Thirteen years later, Fieger does not, indeed, have anything good to say about Michigan's ruling Republicans, whom he describes as "a bunch of angry people filled with fear, mainly of minorities. They only win when Democrats don't vote." He has surprisingly little bad to say about Gov. Rick Snyder; he doesn't like his policies, but doesn't think he is "evil" like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

But the man who makes his blood boil is Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, whom he sees as "using his office to wage war against the people," by refusing to recognize the Medical Marijuana Act, passed overwhelmingly by the voters in 2010.

But if he loathes Republicans, he doesn't have a great deal good to say about his own party either.

"(U.S. Sen.) Carl Levin told me accurately the day I was nominated that there was no Democratic Party. There was just a mannequin you stuff with cash every four years."

Still, Geoffrey Fieger won nearly 1.2 million votes, and ever since, there's been speculation that he might run again. So, this columnist went to ask him.

"Probably not," he said. "I've come to the conclusion that I can make more of a difference not running for office. The main thing a governor has is the bully pulpit," he said, meaning the ability to be paid attention to.

The only elected position that might tempt him, he says, would be mayor of Detroit. "What you first have to do is repopulate the city -- and a good education system, everything else will follow," he said.

"I'd throw the city open to artists. We wouldn't enforce any law against marijuana, or against the classier sort of prostitution," such as exists in Amsterdam or Hamburg.

But he seems an unlikely candidate. After his gubernatorial escapade, Fieger, now almost 61, and his wife, Keenie, adopted three small children, and devote much of their time to them.

Plus, with at least five major homes, his own airplane and a vast staff, it is unlikely that he could stand the pay cut.

Jack Lessenberry's email address is bucca@aol.com.