UPDATED W/ VIDEO [below]: Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie (pictured) elicited the scorn of the Norm Coleman campaign today after making the following remarks in a morning appearance on MSNBC:

“Their [the Coleman campaign's] goal is to win at any price. They’ve invested millions and millions of dollars. We consider this part of the normal political rhetoric…. We’re used to the political rhetoric being amped up. That’s part of their job — to win at any price.”

Though the last half of Ritchie’s statement augurs against reading “win at any price” as a goal Ritchie attributes only to the Coleman campaign, Politico notes that Coleman spokesman Cullen Sheehan was quick to demand an apology and to assert that Ritchie was not being objective:

“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.”

UPDATE: Here’s the video from MSNBC. In context, it seems clear that Ritchie was not singling out the Coleman campaign for criticism; he was saying controversy and accusations are just part of a process like this. Here’s the lead-in and answer:

ANCHOR: For more now on the recount in Minnesota, let’s talk to Mark Ritchie, who’s the Minnesota Secretary of State…. I know that there is some scrutiny by the Republicans over this recount, because in part Norm Coleman led by 735 votes the morning after election night. Now he just leads by 206. There were some corrections made by local election boards. Do you understand why the Coleman campaign is now questioning the integrity of the vote counting?

RITCHIE: Oh, I think it’s normal campaign — uh, you know, their goal is to win at any price. They’ve invested millions and millions of dollars. So we consider this part of the normal political rhetoric….

Video’s after the jump. The Ritchie interview starts around the 1:40 mark.