Blow by blowhard

Call it the battle of the over-bloated egos. In one corner we have attorney Geoffrey Fieger, whose most recent claim to infamy was a low-rent rip-off of Donald Trump’s unnervingly successful TV show, The Apprentice.

And in the other corner we have Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a true heavyweight when it comes to blowing his own horn.

The boast-off between these two bastions of self-promotion arrived in last month’s mail.

First there was the Spring 2004 issue of Fieger Times, a glossy mailer sent out by the firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney & Johnson. It is six colorful pages containing five photos of the Fiegermeister, including one especially inane shot of Fieger shaking hands with none other than Michael Jackson six years ago. The pic accompanies an equally inane reprint of an article by Neal Rubin of the Detroit News, who informs us that Fieger marveled at the size of the former King of Pop’s freakishly large hands.

Not to be outdone, the Kwamster’s administration unleashed Detroit Door2Door, an eight-page tabloid-size mailer sent to city residents in May. Those eight pages contain no fewer than 12 color pictures of Mayor Hip-Hop. Sort of all Kwame, all the time. Kwame at the opening of a Food Basics store, Kwame at a town hall meeting, Kwame addressing the Oakland County Drain Commission, Kwame visiting an old folks home.

What a guy. Not only does the Kwamster swamp Fieger in the arena of self-promotion; he manages to do it on the public dime. We called his office to find out just how many public dimes it cost to produce and distribute this masterful bit of horn-tooting, but as of press time did not receive an answer.