O'Reilly suggested "fix is in" for Franken on MN recount, despite report that Coleman campaign approved of recount panel
SUMMARY: Bill O'Reilly claimed that Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (D) was "actively rooting for Al Franken" in the Senate race between Franken and incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and that "the fix is in." But O'Reilly did not note that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty approved of the composition of the canvassing board Ritchie named to certify the vote and oversee the recount or that a lawyer for Coleman's campaign reportedly said that the "state should feel good about who's on the panel."
During the November 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly claimed that Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (D) was "actively rooting for Al Franken" in the Senate race between Franken and incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and that "the fix is in." But O'Reilly did not note that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty approved of the composition of the canvassing board Ritchie named to certify the vote and oversee the recount or that a lawyer for Coleman's campaign reportedly said that the "state should feel good about who's on the panel."
During the show, O'Reilly also falsely claimed that "since Election Day, Coleman didn't get -- they didn't find one vote for Coleman." In fact, while Franken has netted more votes during the statewide audit of unofficial election returns, election officials reportedly have tallied additional votes for Coleman during the certification process as well. O'Reilly also repeated the discredited suggestion that election officials may have tampered with votes in an effort to benefit Franken by mishandling 32 absentee ballots from Minneapolis.
Previewing an upcoming discussion with Fox News analyst Laura Ingraham, O'Reilly claimed, "The man in charge of the vote count in Minnesota is actively rooting for Al Franken." During the subsequent discussion, O'Reilly claimed, "[I]f the fix is in -- and you just heard the secretary of state -- the fix is in. What does Coleman do?" However, at no point during the discussion did O'Reilly or Ingraham point out that the five-member canvassing board includes two judges appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Pawlenty, or that during the November 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Pawlenty said, "Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named -- two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's gonna be a fair system." Moreover, the Associated Press reported on November 13 that "Fritz Knaak, Coleman's lead lawyer, said he was comfortable with the board's makeup. 'The people of this state should feel good about who's on the panel,' he said."
During the discussion, O'Reilly further claimed of Ritchie, "[T]his guy is the secretary of state. He's in charge of overseeing this thing, and now we've been investigating it. Do you realize that since Election Day -- do you know, that since Election Day, Coleman didn't get -- they didn't find one vote for Coleman. He lost 47 or 67 votes." He later asked Ingraham, "You're not finding any votes for the Republican guy? None?" Ingraham responded, "No, of course not." But while the statewide audit of unofficial election results has resulted in a net narrowing of Coleman's lead, a November 11 Minneapolis Star Tribune article reported that Coleman has received additional votes in some counties as a result of the audit:
Monday was the deadline for counties to certify their results. Depending on the unknown number that may not have yet reported them to the state, that 206 figure could still change before the state Canvassing Board meets next week to certify the official total. Only then will the recount begin.
Officials with Hennepin County forwarded their tally Monday to the secretary of state's office, showing that, since initial results Wednesday, Franken's total had increased by 55 votes and Coleman's by 27 in the state's largest county.
Adjustments in the vote tallies because of misplaced figures and other errors have been limited to 22 of the state's 87 counties, according to an analysis of the fluctuations from Wednesday to Monday.
Since the preliminary Election Day numbers, Franken's biggest gains were in Lake County, where he added 246 votes, and in Pine and St. Louis counties, where he picked up 100 in each.
Coleman's biggest gain was in Ramsey County, 29 votes, but that was more than canceled out by an additional 41 votes there for Franken. Coleman's biggest drop was 124 votes in Anoka County, where Franken also lost 90 votes.
Moreover, O'Reilly claimed that "they're finding votes all over the place -- in the trunks of cars, you know, up in the tree" for Franken, forwarding the discredited rumor that 32 absentee ballots from Minneapolis were mishandled. As Media Matters for America has documented, on November 8 Knaak reportedly said, "We were actually told ballots had been riding around in [Minneapolis director of elections Cindy Reichert's] car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions." However, Knaak reportedly said later on November 8 that he was assured the ballots weren't tampered with, and also reportedly said on November 10 that "[i]t does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern." Further, Hennepin County officials have repeatedly said the ballots were sealed and held in a secure location, and Reichert has reportedly said that the claim that the ballots were in her car was false, as was the claim that the ballots sat in a car for days.
From the November 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
[begin video clip]
CONTESSA BREWER (MSNBC anchor): Do you understand why the Coleman campaign is now questioning the integrity of the vote counting?
RITCHIE: That's part of their job of trying to win at any price.
[end video clip]
O'REILLY: The man in charge of the vote count in Minnesota is actively rooting for Al Franken, and now there are charges of election fraud. Laura Ingraham will analyze.
[...]
O'REILLY: Next on the rundown, Laura Ingraham will react to our discussion and also analyze possible voter fraud in the intense Minnesota Senate race.
[...]
O'REILLY: But this guy is the secretary of state. He's in charge of overseeing this thing, and now we've been investigating it. Do you realize that since Election Day -- do you know, that since Election Day, Coleman didn't get -- they didn't find one vote for Coleman. He lost 47 or 67 votes. The other guy, Franken, they're finding votes all over the place -- in the trunks of cars --
INGRAHAM: Well, you know --
O'REILLY: -- you know, up in the tree. You know, and, I mean, everybody's watching this, so I don't know, can you -- do you think they can get away with it?
INGRAHAM: This is vote counting by David Copperfield. I mean, this is like a David Blaine illusionist finding votes everywhere.
Look, this is my rule of thumb, Bill. Anytime a Republican in a race like this is only winning by, let's say, a thousand votes or less, then you can bet that that Republican's going to end up losing that seat. It just always seems to work out this way, that -- that the election officials in the state where there's, you know, some type of dispute, always get into this kind of gray area, and -- and we find now that these votes -- these 504 votes -- came from three precincts -- just three precincts out of the whole state. That's staggering.
And as John Lott pointed out, Bill, in a great column he wrote that was in today's New York Post, the -- the numbers of votes they found -- found for -- for Cole -- for Franken, excuse me, since Election Day outpace the number they found for Obama by 2.5, OK? Two-point-nine times as many votes were found for all Democratic officials statewide.
O'REILLY: Well, but -- but here's the deal. Here's the deal.
INGRAHAM: Something doesn't add up there. It's very strange.
O'REILLY: Everything doesn't add up, not something. Everything doesn't add up. You're not finding any votes for the Republican guy? None?
INGRAHAM: No, of course not.
O'REILLY: You're taking votes away from the guy? And then, all of a sudden, as you pointed out, three -- and what are there, a thousand precincts? More than a thousand. Three, all right, heavily Democratic, they're kicking votes in like this. But here's the deal. If Franken gets in, that puts the Democrats over the 60 magic number. So, that -- that means it's every American, because this is a far-left loon we're looking at right here -- not Bill Clinton, Al Franken. He's a loon, OK? So, if he gets in, every American, every single person in this country is gonna be impacted. And I just -- see, I don't know what you do here.
If -- if the fix is in -- and you just heard the secretary of state -- the fix is in. What does Coleman do? Does he take it to the federal level? What does he do?
From the November 12 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
SEAN HANNITY (co-host): All right. Now, now -- but we have a problem with the secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, do we not? He's a liberal partisan secretary of state. When you look through his record, he has ties to this controversial group we discuss a lot, ACORN. He attended the 2008 Democratic Convention.
How much faith and hope and confidence do you have in Ritchie, considering his radical relationships and partisanship -- even connected to MoveOn.org?
PAWLENTY: Well, all secretary of states are elected, and they have partisan backgrounds of one party or the other. In this case, the final decisions are made by a canvassing board of five people. It consists of the secretary of state plus four judges.
Those folks were named today. The four judges that were named -- two of them I appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
HANNITY: All right.
PAWLENTY: Two others have good reputations in Minnesota, so I think it's gonna be a fair system.
Good! Franken makes 57, Stevens, who will be kicked out by the GOP so Palin can appoint a temporary twerp and then run for the position should he win (which he won't) will be 58, and Chambliss losing will be 59. A legally and constitutionally earned mandate if ever I saw one.
P.S. Oh Bill, how did that little interview with Jon Stewart go? Tee hee!
how did that little interview with Jon Stewart go?
Snoop, I was pretty disappointed in the Stewart/BilldO interview. Maybe it was directed at Stewart's audience ( who could see BO clearly being clowned) but I thought Stewart was way too nice, and could have slammed O'Reilly on a couple of points.
Maybe he just wants the big pussy to come back, and went easy.
When Billo is schilling in the MSM he treats his Foxian propoganda as if it were a big joke ("I in on it," he says to Dave/Jay/Jon). He then goes back and craps out of his mouth on the show.
Heck, they are still upset Obama purposely did not take a single question from them when he won. They've been culled from the herd like the weak gazelle at the back of the pack.
Remember: If someone says that florida in 2000 or Ohio in 2004 were fixed, it's "liberal sore loser whining"
If someome claims this race is fixed, it's good, patriotic, all-American justice.
Billo the Clown is just all whiny that he's irrelevant.
PS: MEDIA MATTERS, FIX YOUR STUPID COMMENT SYSTEM
Comment system works fine for me.
Anyway, how can the fix be in for Franken by following, you know, the rules, in such a close race, a recount is supposed to happen. If Franken wins, expect a court challenge. If Franken loses, expect a court challenge, unless the results are un-impeachable one way or another. Hopefully, the results (whichever way they roll) will be complete, and not challenged.
O'Reilly and Ingraham. I don't seem to remember them whining when the Repub secretary of state of Florida called the election for W. Or the repub in Ohio... This is incredible.
No fair, Media Matters. Your photo of Billo the Clown makes him look all angry, red and splotchy. Did you get it from Al Franken?
I'll admit -- if a republican were in charge I'd just write down a Coleman victory right now.
If O'Reilly would admit he's a conservative, and Fox would pull down their "fair and balanced" slogan, and Hannity would admit that he doesn't have a co-host, I'd have no problem with what they're doing here.
S - I've always said that too and what difference would it make in the audience? They sing to the choir, the choir shows up for services. What's the big deal?
He who Laughs Last
This Minnesota election must turn Bill's stomach. Hannity and he tried several times to smear Franken during the campaign and now they are hoping for some parting shots. I love how O'Reilly calls Franken a smear merchant and never provides any evidence of it. Franken proved all his accusations against O'Reilly yet Bill continues his unfounded diatribes against Al never realizing the unintended irony.
anyone believing billybob o'really is an Independent has a lower IQ than a chimp. bo is an ultra right winger. I watch him everynite for laughs (inshannity too). bo hates progressives. All of his faucks facts are just make believe. All of bo's replacement hosts are ultra right wing loons. I am hoping for a franken victory.
Some of the reasons for me following US politics were O'Reilly and Hannity's stupidity on fox (insomnia is a terrible thing, expecially when there was nothing else on tv) before the 2004 election, and Franken's book "Lies and the lying liars who tell them".
It's been fun to watch this race as you can see O'Reilly becoming more unhindged at the thought of someone HE considers an enemy becoming a Senator. Add this to the delight if Colman goes down after his disaster against George Galloway in the Senate and l personally will be a happy man,
UK, what's new with Galloway. And I loved the way Galloway handled Coleman. Wish our lefty politicians had those kind of balls.
Uh, did Bill O'Reilly forget that Bush's own campaign manager was the FL Secretary of State?
I don't know if you have seen the Minnesota ballot, but if you are unable to fill it out correctly you should be disqualified.
If you can bang two rocks together, you can fill out the Minnesota ballot.
Two requirements:
1) Be able to read.
2) Be able to color in a little oval with a pencil.
Is that asking too much?
I don't know. Maybe folks who are too stupid to recognize that Republicans are vulgar corporate Marxists who manipulate their constituency with religion and paranoia ought to be disqualified. I mean, denying Americans the franchise is what equality is all about. Right?
Republicans are complete idiots. Yet despite the drool coming out of our mouths as we trog our way to the polls, we somehow figure out a way to properly cast a vote for the candidate of our choice.
It's amazing.
Wahh. Cry me a river, hypocrite. You gripe about my comment after you said that Democratic voters should be disqualified for being too stupid to fill out a ballot (and no. As I have not seen one, I will not take you at your word that the MN ballot is uncomplicated.)
Also, y'all Republicans find your way to the polls, alright. You mark the right boxes, too. AND you have also been adept at flipping votes in past elections.
Keep it up with your elitist views of the ballot box, though. You are on a very American line of thought with that only a select group of standardized people should have a voice in our democracy wavelength. As if the poor, the under-educated, the elderly and first time voters have no stake in our shared future.
I never said Democrat voters should be disqualified for filling out their ballots incorrectly. I said any ballot that is filled out incorrectly should be disqualified. If that's more Republican votes than Democrats then so be it.
It's your side that's somehow sure that these ballots will go your way. I don't buy it.
You really need to read what I write instead of what you think I wrote.
Elitist? Hardly, how about having some standards.
Looks like both Alaska and Georgia are leaning Democratic. All that's needed is MN and the GOP enters its long Winter of discontent with a Democratic 60 seat fillabuster proof Congress.