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I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

Let's string up all corporate executives receiving bonuses, retention payments or other remuneration in excess of the minimum wage!

Let's take a wrecking ball and smash to smithereens Constellation Energy's headquarters with senior managers and their sweet reward packages still inside!

Let's compel every greedy AIG officer with a seven-figure bonus to commit hari-kari, as urged by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley!

As for the rest of the nation's financial executives living high, high off the hog, let's tax their ill-gotten gains a full 150 percent (not counting the additional state tax levy)!

That will teach them!

So what if these acts of vengeance prolong and deepen the recession?

Who cares if there's a mass talent exodus from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG and other deeply troubled corporations struggling to keep the U.S. financial marketplace afloat?

Does it matter that the deal to save Maryland's largest power generator from bankruptcy might have been endangered by the actions of Annapolis politicians?

We don't care: We want vigilante action!

We're entering an Alice in Wonderland time in which there's a frenzied rush to pass irrational — and probably unconstitutional — legislation that blames and punishes corporate officials for everything that happened to the U.S. economy.

In Washington, Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts wants to make it illegal for any corporation receiving government bailout aid to award bonuses to top employees. An emotion-laden stampede in the House of Representatives led to approval of a bill imposing a confiscatory 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses and other similar giveaways.

Meanwhile, in Annapolis the legislature and Gov. Martin O'Malley took turns bashing Constellation for daring to try to retain essential personnel through a bonus paid by a French firm that wants a half-interest in Constellation's nuclear energy program. The "get Constellation" lynch mob was building its gallows when Constellation pulled the plug on the retention program.

State legislators badly misled the public into believing that somehow these bonuses and high electric rates were linked, that if the retention payments from the French firm were eliminated, there would be savings for ratepayers.

It's total malarkey.

All this sound and fury misses the point: These bonuses and retention awards have nothing to do with bigger, more important issues. It's a sideshow that has the public in a lather. Sadly, elected leaders are appealing to the mob's worst instincts.

Some in Annapolis want to bamboozle us into believing that lashing out at Constellation's executives and re-creating a tightly regulated power industry will lower electric prices — an impossibility. They claim they are saving the public from the greed of Constellation.

As promoter P.T. Barnum put it, "There's a sucker born every minute."

The governor is leading the charge to re-regulate the power industry, even if it kills the makings of electric competition in Maryland. He demands tighter control by the Public Service Commission of Maryland's power companies. It sounds good to an irate public. Who cares if it results in higher energy prices?

In the commercial market, electric power competition is working quite nicely. And in the residential market there finally are promising signs of true competition — and lower prices. (Homeowners now can secure electricity contracts from power suppliers that are 10 to 15 percent below rates charged by BGE — a Constellation subsidiary — and Pepco.)

All of these gains could be destroyed if Annapolis' angry avengers get their way.

There's an underlying assumption from O'Malley & Company that government regulators are wiser and more knowledgeable about the power industry than electric company experts. Not so. Just look at the curious mandate from by the PSC last week.

Over objections from its own staff, the People's Counsel and state utilities, the PSC ordered utilities to purchase 40 percent of the natural gas they buy and store for the 2009-10 winter right away. The dissenters argued it would be cheaper and smarter to continue buying natural gas monthly because of the continuing gas glut and potential for far lower prices.

On Tuesday, though, the PSC suddenly voided that order and went back to the drawing board because of a temporary spike in natural gas prices.

What's clear from this quick retreat by the PSC is that regulators can't read crystal balls any better than the rest of us. Commissioners ignored the advice of their own experts and industry experts. They ended up looking foolish. Monthly purchase of natural gas on the competitive market remains the wisest option.

But the PSC, O'Malley and legislative Democrats don't have much faith in competitive markets these days. The answer to Maryland's high energy prices, they think, lies in strict control of markets by government — even if it means giving more monopoly power to the old utilities and ending electric competition.

The screaming headlines about executive bonuses and retention payouts give unexpected momentum to bills ordering a regulatory clampdown on utilities. We're being led down a dangerous trail. Our elected leaders need to proceed with extreme care to avoid a second electricity debacle in less than a decade.

Barry Rascovar is a communications consultant and longtime State House columnist. His e-mail address is brascovar@hotmail.com.