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Over at Minnesota Democrats Exposed, Michael Brodkorb has put a post up about the Legislative Auditors report on Mark Ritchie.

Okay, get it out of your system now. You are totally shocked that MDE posted about Mark Ritchie right? Somebody told me, and I was “Wha? No way. I cannot believe it unless I see it with my own eyes!” and I went over there and like you dear reader I was totally shocked that there was another post about it. (as a sidenote — to be real cute I was going to intermittently post links in that sentence to MDE posts where he attacks Mark Ritchie. But, MDE has gotten more milage out of this story than there were words in that paragraph — the delicious comic irony of this to follow.) But I digress.

Back to MDE’s post. For those of you who aren’t regular readers of MDE and are unable to decode his particular brand of spin-speak, I shall provide a small lesson on how to read the posts of MDE.

Rumors are flying around in political circles that Minnesota Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles will be releasing his report on Secretary of State Mark Ritchie tomorrow around 10:00 A.M.

Alright. Simple declaratory statement. Relatively innocuous. MNPublius has heard these rumors as well.

Ritchie promised to be a non-partisan secretary of state, but was caught lying in the growing scandal surrounding allegations that he used his official office to fund his political machine. Legislators, conservative bloggers, liberal bloggers, Republicans and Democrats all believe that Secretary of State Ritchie lied.

Wait a minute — weren’t we just talking about like facts and stuff. You know concrete provable verifiable bits of information? Where did this “Ritchie promised to be a non-partisan secretary of state,” stuff come from? There is a report coming out, no, Michael? Why don’t you just say what’s in the report?

Acha! Here’s the reason…

But I’m hearing mixed reviews on what Nobles will report. Ritchie may be cleared or it may be a more of a mixed bag for our dear “non-partisan” Secretary of State. From a political and public relations standpoint, Ritchie has been damaged. Sadly, so has the office he occupies.

This is called “lowering expectations.” The reason why MDE’s post didn’t start with “Much like the Campaign Finance Board complaint I’m hearing rumors that when the Legislative Auditors report is out tomorrow it’s going to be a wash at best, and maybe not even get a written reprimand,” is because 1. that would be honest and 2. it wouldn’t fit into the ‘theme’ he’s been working on for nigh on 70 posts now.

And that last sentence? “Sadly, so has the office he occupies.” You can laugh when you read it. I know I did. I had a mental image there was Michael Brodkorb, lifting his steely gaze to the sky, and one lonesome tear rolled down his chiseled cheek for the politicization of the secretary of states office.

So, basically, yeah, we’re hearing rumors that the Legislative Auditor is coming out with his report tomorrow, and that far from a mixed bag, we’re hearing that Mike, the always crush worthy Laura Brod, which ever one of those Emmers it was, and Ron (I Heart Huckabeez!) Carey are probably not going to be happy with the results of the investigation.