An e-mail reprinted in entirety with permission from correspondent Steve Springfield:

Q: What do Heath Ledger and Rod Blowdryovich have in common?

A: Both acted like malicious jokers in 2008.

Sadly, the talented one who was only pretending has passed on, while the genuine ass-clown hangs around like his hair isn’t the only thing that’s locked into place.

Read this for a TGIF moment: “It’s like a Frank Capra movie.”

Our governor sees a pattern here. The powerbrokers are conspiring to remove him over trifles because they don’t like his management style. Then they’re going to raise your taxes.

Well duh. He’s not being paranoid – everyone does hate him. He governed by press release since Day One and averaged a 10-hour work week in a job that requires an 80-hour one. His last friend with any clout just retired from the Senate, then appointed his unqualified son to fill his seat so Junior could be the one to vote to convict him.

Maybe someone should sit Rod down and explain that when you’re hired to do a job and you fail miserably, and also try to plunder the company’s assets when you think no one’s looking, well, yes – you can be fired from your place of employment. It’s just called “impeachment” in the public sector.

But now it’s about raising taxes? I thought it was about the House Democrats blocking His Royal Haircut’s health care expansion plans. Oh, wait, that was last week.

The Governor has made Illinois’ bad fiscal situation damn-near intolerable over the last 6 years. It’s no wonder the lawmakers will have to raise taxes — someone has to start turning around this trainwreck. The State’s done nothing but borrow and hemorrhage red ink since NimRod took office with his intractable pledge to never raise any major taxes. Hey, C student: income and sales taxes are the best instruments available for state government to raise serious capital. Republican Jim Thompson used to say during campaigns that he didn’t think we need to raise taxes, then get elected and say “wow, the situation’s gotten a lot worse than I expected… look at these economic indicators… I may need to reassess things.” And he got re-elected 3 times.

Maybe a new tax on services — something other states have done when their tax base shifted away from production jobs — which would’ve brought in boatloads of cash legally, but also would’ve taken some actual effort and vision on someone’s part. Someone who would’ve had to actually talk to lawmakers and the people and make a case for something bold to solve big problems. “Progress? Huh? What’s that?” It’s like he got more incompetent the longer he stayed on the job.

Am I the only one who sees eerie similarities to that other bag of hammers that’s now clearing brush in Crawford? Like Rod, W failed upward all the way to the top of the executive branch and we who didn’t vote for these numbskulls TWICE have had to just stand there at the curb and watch. Then we bend over and take the pipe. “Why not wage 2 wars simultaneously while we cut taxes? Hey, let’s trust the industries that handle the financial might of our country to regulate themselves; what’s the worst thing that could happen?” Nice going. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, fellas.

Our newly minted President puts their wisdom, fiscal maturity and sense of purpose in sharp relief, don’t he? Like black and white.”

Right on. Blago’s press interactions have been so car-crash-must-watch surreal it has me a little off balance. He’s so shameless and assertive that I actually admire it, for one thing, damning with profoundly faint praise. And my default setting is very much biased towards “innocent until proven guilty.” Plus, Rod can’t exactly be doing it all by himself. Still, well, wow!

I’m actually starting to see him as the perfect confluence of how bad TV, bad governance, and our misinformed electorate can be overwhelmed by good politics. So far, Blago’s kicking everyone’s ass politically, despite all common sense, wisdom and the controls we as a society put in place to avoid humiliating ourselves. Including VOTING. It’s very weird.

There is not a single major institution of any kind, be it religious, financial, governmental, corporate, military, charitable…you name one, and I’ll find you some abuse, that hasn’t soiled itself in the last 20 years.

And people tease me when I tell them to Beware The Man.