The Letter Of The Law

The legislative auditor – Jim Noble – has concluded after interviewing Mark Ritchie and several of his employees that he did not misuse his office in using public data for fund-raising emails.

  • Secretary of State Mark Ritchie did not misuse state resources when he organized civic education events and collected contact information from the participants. The events were appropriate activities of the Secretary of State’s office, and the contact information fulfilled a public purpose.
  • Secretary of State Mark Ritchie did not violate Minnesota law when he provided the contact information to his campaign since the information is “public data” under Minnesota law.

And apparently he’s just a little above the law…:

  • Secretary of State Mark Ritchie did not fulfill his legal obligation to make a full and timely response to a request for information from the Legislative Auditor.

So.  That’s that.

As Michael notes, this might just be as much a victory for the notion of scrutiny as for Ritchie’s ethics.  And the Strib – as in-the-bag for the DFL as any official DFL organ – isn’t especially pleased with the Secretary of State, either.

But my favorite response is the always-apoplectic “Phoenix Woman” – AKA “Ms. Furious” – from Mercury Rising, who tries to spin the news as a win for Ritchie.  Note, Ms. Woman:  being proven not to be corrupt is something a good SoS might file under “damnation by faint praise”.

Oh, and when Ms. Woman “writes”:

It’s going to be awfully tough for Mitch Berg to accuse State Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles of being a DFL hack, since, as Charlie of Across the Great Divide reminds us, Mitch is already on record with the opposite opinion:

Fascinating bit of “logic”, since I never even thought about criticizing Mr. Nobles, and one didn’t have to go to Charlie Quimby to know that.

Which merely proves that if Phoenix Woman didn’t have that whole “purple-faced anonymous apoplectic ranting” thing going, she’d have precious little to write about at all.  On the other hand, straw men may be her only social circle.

All ya had to do was ask, toots.

8 thoughts on “The Letter Of The Law

  1. Quimby isn’t exactly a reliable guy. He somehow misreads posts and comments (as we are all apt to do now and again)… he misses the point like Peev or (for those who read the Anti-Strib) Harold.

  2. Among regional leftybloggers, Quimby is one of the short (infinitesimal) list of good ones.

    Phoenix Woman, on the other hand, is to bloggers what crashes are to NASCAR; regrettable, but entertaining in a way you don’t quite want to admit even to yourself.

  3. is Mercury Rising a reference to

    the 1998 Bruce Willis movie
    or
    the astrological position of Mercury at the time the first jet hit the twin towers on the morning of 9.11.01?

  4. I enjoyed this part most of all: “Of course, as The Wege notes, neither DJ Tice nor his fellow wingnuts in the comments section of TBQ in the Strib will really and truly admit that Ritchie’s been exonerated.”

    That’s because Ritchie has *not* really and truly been exonerated. I didn’t think the campaign abuse was going to fly right from the start.

    The “smoking gun” in this case is, and always has been Ritchie’s deliberate and public lies. Not once, not twice but three times did this moron go on the record as saying a) I did no such thing and when shown proof went on to lie b) I have NO IDEA how that happened, straight through to the biggest lie of all c) I never directed anyone to send that data to my campaign committee.

    Now I know that in Democrat circles lying is status quo, so I am not surprised in the least at either Ritchie’s willingness to do so nor the Democrat party’s willingness to ignore it. But I am surprised that the moonbat nutroots are clueless enough to continue to draw attention to the subject with their on line asshat victory dances.

    Can they *really* believe that the public at large is as morally bereft as they are, or are they counting on their well developed and oft depended upon belief that everyone is as utterly stupid as they are?

    Of course where Sphincter Woman is concerned the latter is a given.

  5. The Swift One declared “Now I know that in Democrat circles lying is status quo”
    And it’s pretty hard to argue against. A quote from Mrs. Bill Clinton today in regards to the NH primary “I don’t pay much attention to polls”.
    Riiight.

  6. And sometimes Quimby comments and someone else misses the point.

    I think Mitch could tell my reference to his post was because he had made a fair statement about Nobles. And Nobles issued a fair finding, not nearly as bad as MDE would like nor as good as the DFL wanted.

    Nobles had a good reputation on both sides, and quoting Mitch was better than my saying it.

  7. You know, I love to see the DFL get a finger waved at them while their hand is in the public’s cookie jar, but how is us winning this, or trying to win this one going to do one thing to get good conservatives who follow the law elected?

    And besides we’re stuck with Ritchie for 3 more years. Why give him the chance to appear non-partisan when election rulings need to be made.

    KEEP THE POWDER DRY my friends and detractors. This battle is for another day.

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