Nice timing, Dennis Willard

This weekend, Dennis Willard of the Akron Beacon Journal became the latest Ohio columnist to write a piece critical of Gov. Strickland's leadership, or lack thereof.

Three and a half years into his first term, Gov. Ted Strickland has been cleaning house.

In August alone, Strickland accepted resignations from or pushed out three directors.

Willard goes on to list ten high profile resignations within the Governor's cabinet.

The promise to ''Turnaround Ohio'' that Strickland made in running for office in 2006 has gone unfulfilled.

Strickland has been ambitious in rolling out a progressive agenda, but his attempts to fix the school-funding formula, provide more benefits to the needy, even avoid raising taxes by expanded gambling through keno and now slots, have faltered initially or failed because of poor planning, communication and execution.

Some of this is the result of being new at the job of administering government after spending years as a minority member of the U.S. House.

But a contributing factor to Strickland's shortcomings is that the people he needs the most — those who speak truth to power — are not welcome.

And the ones he needs the least seem to have a way of hanging around just a little too long.

Those words, written on the 12th, were all too prophetic.

In a column that kickstarted itself by highlighting the resignation of Henry Guzman, Willard had no idea the mess the Governor's former Public Safety Director had caused.

The next day, on the 13th, the Columbus Dispatch published an expose of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and its failure to prevent 60,000 illegal aliens from obtaining drivers licenses.

Now, we won't go into the implications of such a grave situation here. We all are smart enough to understand the ramifications.

Instead, consider the disaster from a political perspective.

Can you see the "Under his watch, Governor Strickland allowed 60,000 illegal aliens..." ads already?

It's amazing. Just when I think things can't possibly get worse for Gov. Strickland, something like this happens and just blows me away.

It's time for Ohio Democrats to consider the political poison that is the Strickland Administration and their strategies for playing keep away.

Fisher must find a way to project the debate in the Senate race away from his service with the Governor.

Brunner, if she's smart, will use the power of earned media to compensate for her massive financial disadvantage and make news by attacking Fisher with his attachment to the Governor.

Cordray will cover his eyes and ears and avoid the Governor at all costs in hopes of being the last man standing for 2014.

As for Boyce, Pepper, and Garrison/Brown.....well, all they can do is hope and pray their respective opponents shoot themselves in the collective foot.

Ohio Democrats scoffed at the mess that Bob Taft and Republicans put themselves in just 3 years ago.

Well fellas, it's time to pay the piper.

UPDATE: If you're interested in reading more about the implications behind allowing 60k illegals to have their own drivers licenses, Kyle Sisk has a post up that goes into detail about what is at risk. Check it out here.