Minnesota recount head Ritchie caught lying

You’re about to see the ACORN-endorsed Minnesota Secretary of State responsible for overseeing the Coleman-Franken recount twice fire a cynical slime charge at Sen. Norm Coleman; and then shortly afterwards deny what he said.

But Ritchie’s repeated slime charge and his subsequent denial were all caught on tape.

Background from Politico which reported - - -

The Democratic Secretary of State of Minnesota, Mark Ritchie, was just on MSNBC talking about the recount in the Minnesota Senate race between Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Democrat Al Franken, and his comments will likely upset Coleman's campaign.

Asked about the Coleman campaign's criticism of the recanvassing process, Ritchie said: “Their goal is to win at any price. They’ve invested millions and millions of dollars. We consider this part of the normal political rhetoric,” said Ritchie. “We're used to the political rhetoric being amped up. That’s part of their job — to win at any price.” . . .

With all votes counted, Coleman leads Franken by 206 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast.

UPDATE: Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan issued a statement calling on Ritchie to apologize for his comments on MSNBC.

"When the Coleman campaign raises legitimate ballot security concerns, over instances such as 32 new ballots appearing in the car of a Minneapolis city official, Mr. Ritchie goes on a national media campaign characterizing our actions as political," Sheehan said in a statement.

"His accusation today that our campaign intends to win ‘at any price’ is offensive, demands an apology and simply underscores our concerns about his ability to act as an unbiased official in this recount. His statement is not reflective of the objective, non-partisan standards Minnesotans expect and deserve, and which Mr. Ritchie as Secretary of State is sworn to uphold. And we are concerned about the pattern we are seeing.”

Here’s the entire Politico report.

Now hosted at YouTube, this revealing video:

Trust Mark Ritchie?