Old Lawyers’ Saying: "If the facts support you, pound the facts. If the facts don’t support you, pound the table." I’ll give you all three guesses what Norm Coleman and his buddies, both locally and nationally, are doing. Yep, they’re pounding the table — which in this case is the reputation of Minnesota’s Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who they apparently hope to cow into violating established and settled Minnesota law on recounts and recanvassings:

Today’s New York Post, calling our electoral drama a “Minny Series,” says that Republicans are dubbing Secretary of State Mark Ritchie “a Democratic version of Katherine Harris, the ex-Republican secretary of state in Florida, whose actions, some believe, helped George Bush win the 2000 presidential election.” (That same epithet was hurled at Ritchie’s predecessor, Republican Mary Kiffmeyer, on more than a few occasions.) Ritchie will likely be in the crosshairs for some time: The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has released talking points targeting what it characterizes as his “Liberal Partisanship.”

Prominent paid Republican Party operative and media darling Michael Brodkorb is a leader of the charge. Meanwhile lesser talents like the Strib’s Katherine Kersten follow in his wake — though Kersten, at the end of a hit piece on Ritchie, is compelled to (rather grudgingly) admit that "Thus far, Ritchie has shown no evidence of misconduct."

Nor will there be, aside from the fevered imaginings of various Republican operatives. Even Norm Coleman’s own campaign lawyer, Fritz Knaak, has had to shoot down a cherished Republican smear concerning the handling of thirty-two provisional ballots; he’s stated for the record that the handling of those ballots was "neither wrong nor unfair." As Minnesota Public Radio’s Tim Nelson reports, it’s quite common for vote totals to shift by a thousand points or more in recanvassings and recounts in Minnesota elections. This has been the case since well before Mark Ritchie was SoS.

And who preceded him in that job, you may ask? Why, none other than Mary Kiffmeyer, who as Jeff Rosenberg notes seemed to feel that her main duty as Secretary of State was to keep certain people from voting. She is considered the Stainless Martyr by the local wingnut crowd, pure innocence abused. Rosenberg’s collected up some of Mary’s Greatest Hits, a few of which are presented here for your perusal:

Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 2002:

…Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer is tired of hearing her state’s “same-day” registration extolled. She compares it to holding a party and not knowing how much food to buy because no one RSVP’d. Some precincts run out of ballots while others are overstocked. “We have long lines because of same-day,” she says. “People get frustrated and leave.”

Star Tribune, Sept. 14, 2004:

Posters warning poll workers to be on the lookout for shaved heads and the smell of flower water will be absent from many polling places across Minnesota today in the midst of a dispute between Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and local election officials.

The cautionary posters, issued last week by Kiffmeyer in conjunction with state homeland security officials, are meant to be a line of defense against terrorist attacks.

But no other state apparently has produced such warnings on the eve of elections, and many local elections officials in Minnesota say they may unduly raise alarms among poll workers and unfairly single out certain voters.

So some local officials are simply refusing to distribute the posters.

Washington Post, Oct 6, 2004:

Analysts say that regardless of intent, terrorism warnings have shaped voter attitudes, an influence that could grow if the warnings are extended to polling sites. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said people who oppose President Bush “see a clear pattern to scare the electorate,” while his supporters see “an administration vigilantly protecting the country.” As for undecided or swing voters, “raising the public’s anxiety level helps the candidacy of George Bush, because at the moment the polls suggest the public feels it’s safer to have George Bush as president,” she said.

Critics of the warnings point to Minnesota Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer’s effort to raise terrorism awareness as an example of how election security measures could chill turnout. Kiffmeyer (R) gave local election officials fliers that warned voters to watch for unattended packages, vehicles “riding low on springs” and “homicide bombers.”

Bombers may have a “shaved head or short hair,” “smell of unusual herbal/flower water or perfume,” wear baggy clothes or appear to be whispering to themselves, the flier warned.

Star Tribune, Sept. 6, 2006:

Trading accusations of playing politics with state election law, Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and her DFL-endorsed challenger sparred Tuesday over carrying out changes making it easier for American Indians to vote.

DFLer Mark Ritchie said Kiffmeyer, a Republican, has failed to alert Indians that they can prove residency using a tribal identification card without an address if they also show a current utility bill.

Easing requirements for voter registration has long been important to Indians because of their mobility between cities and reservations and because some Minnesota bands don’t include addresses on tribal ID cards.

Star Tribune, May 7, 2004 [opinion]:

Mary Kiffmeyer, the Minnesota secretary of state, was the keynote speaker Thursday at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, kicking off Minnesota’s observance of the Day of Prayer with testimony about her faith journey and her belief in a loving God.

So far, so good. But my chair got wobbly when Republican Kiffmeyer let fly that the “five words” that are “probably most destructive” are these: “Separation of church and state.”

Star Tribune, July 26, 2005:

A year after Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer faced election- season questions over how she was implementing a new federal law intended to make voting simpler, a state audit has faulted her office for procedural discrepancies regarding the law.

Finally, this Star Tribune editorial (Oct. 21, 2006) says it all:

…there’s nothing amusing about Kiffmeyer’s actual record. Her policies and practices have had the steady effect – some would say the partisan intent, as well – of discouraging voter participation. She has opposed voting by mail, proposed to decorate polling places with alarmist warning posters about terrorism, and exasperated local elections officials statewide with changing directives about balloting practices and voter identification requirements. Worst, she continues to advocate for requiring voters to produce a photo ID card – a move that would directly undercut Minnesota’s proud tradition of allowing same-day registration and voting by citizens who are elderly, disadvantaged, new to the state or, well, organizationally challenged.

Attentive Minnesotans have learned from disgraceful examples around the country that monkeying with the mechanics of registration, voting and ballot-counting has become the modern method for manipulating election outcomes. Also, that Kiffmeyer’s Republican Party is usually the leading beneficiary of measures that discourage participation at the polls.

Even if that weren’t so, we would urge voters to replace Kiffmeyer with a candidate possessing both commitment and credentials to make voting easier for all Minnesotans. It would be hard to design a better contender than Mark Ritchie.

This is a woman so apparently dedicated to vote suppression, particularly of Native Americans, that she made an enemy of Tom Heffelfinger, who was Minnesota’s US Attorney — and a highly respected one, too — during the terms of both Bushes. Or rather, Heffelfinger’s dedication to protecting the voting rights of Native Americans ticked off her and her buddies at Main Justice so much that the Main Justice folks added Heff’s name to the US Attorney purging list. (Interestingly enough, Heffelfinger had been slated to be on Coleman’s recount team, but bailed almost immediately, citing prior committments. I almost suspect he’d rather not have his good name associated with Coleman’s sleaze machine.)

This is the person the local branch of the right-wing noise machine holds in higher esteem than Mark Ritchie. That should tell you something about the local branch of the right-wing noise machine.