* Before we begin today’s discussion of my latest Sun-Times column, I want to lay down one big rule: This myth promulgated by some of her supporters that Gov. Palin had to stay at home and collect her per diem because she had a difficult pregnancy is not believable on at least a couple of fronts.

First, she was in Texas a month before her baby was due giving a speech…

The governor’s water broke during the energy conference but she stayed and gave a 30-minute speech before boarding an Alaska Airlines plane home to deliver the baby.

Second, these per diem payments go back at least to March of 2007, long before she was pregnant.

* Also, I’m not the only one who apparently saw the connection between Blagojevich and Palin. The AP ran this story after I submitted my column to the paper yesterday…

A governor who spends a lot of time away from the Capitol, whose family travels at state expense, who is criticized for not showing up at crucial legislative moments — the scrutiny of the travel and work habits of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sounds familiar in Illinois, where Gov. Rod Blagojevich has faced similar criticism.

* OK, onto the column, with added hyperlinks…

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is now exactly where our own governor wanted to be four years ago.

Before the 2002 gubernatorial election results were even counted, Rod Blagojevich’s friends were touting him as a potential vice presidential nominee in 2004. He was a young, refreshing, telegenic change agent who had ended 26 years of Republican rule. A Midwest populist whose father was a working-class, first-generation American, Blagojevich, like Palin, had a great story to tell and the ability to tell it.

Then, everything fell apart. An obscure African-American state senator got himself nominated for the U.S. Senate in the 2004 Democratic primary, and all of a sudden nobody wanted to talk about Rod Blagojevich.

It’s probably a good thing for the Democrats that Blagojevich’s star faded so fast. The shoddy, even shady, way he ran his office and his numerous character flaws weren’t fully appreciated back then.

Those character flaws and governing style have been on my mind a lot as I’ve watched the spectacular unveiling of Gov. Palin as John McCain’s running mate.

Palin has that same uncanny ability as Blagojevich to cheerily repeat a blatant falsehood over and over. All politicians do this to some degree or another, but these two seem to truly believe their own untruths.

For instance, Palin’s repeated claims to have stopped the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” are just false. Congress stopped that bridge a year before Palin was elected governor. Congress allowed Alaska to keep the $459 million earmarked for the bridge and another, lesser known bridge, and Palin eventually abandoned her campaign pledge to continue the fight. By the way, your tax dollars are still building a $25 million road to that infamous and nonexistent bridge. Why? Because if Palin didn’t build the road she’d have to give the money back to the U.S. taxpayers.

Governors Palin and Blagojevich appear to have the same hypocritical bullying attitude toward their respective Legislatures. Like Blagojevich, Palin has called numerous, rancorous special legislative sessions and often hasn’t bothered to show up for them.

Last fall, Palin’s absence during a special session provoked legislators to don “Where’s Sarah?” buttons. Rod Blagojevich called one of his umpteen special sessions last year and then attended a hockey game in Chicago.

Like Blagojevich, Palin chooses not to live in her state’s governor’s mansion. Both governors fly back and forth to the capital at taxpayers’ expense. But Palin one-ups Blagojevich because she also charges taxpayers thousands of dollars to work from her home.

Palin claimed to have fired the governor’s mansion chef, but the governor kept the woman on the state payroll as a “constituent relations assistant.” Blagojevich claims to have reduced the governor’s office budget, but he really just moved most of those employee payrolls to other state agencies.

Palin’s wars with her Legislature have produced the same horrible relationship with Alaska’s Senate president, a fellow Republican, as Blagojevich has with House Speaker Michael Madigan, a fellow Democrat. Senate President Lyda Green has pronounced Palin unprepared for the vice presidency. Madigan is Blagojevich’s chief critic.

As a result, Gov. Palin is now attempting to sidetrack a legislative investigation into her alleged attempts to have her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police. Speaker Madigan distributed pro-impeachment talking points earlier this year.

Palin has many strengths that Blagojevich does not possess. But her shocking relish for repeating blatant lies, her eerily familiar battles with her Legislature and political party leaders, and her refusal to spend time at the statehouse while demanding others do so are all giving me an uneasy case of deja vu.

* Further reading: Zorn Webliography: `The Bridge to Nowhere’