hourglass.thumbnail.jpgBack when it looked like the counting of the fifth-pile ballots would likely only provide 30-odd additional ballots for Al Franken, and thus keep his margin of victory to around 80 votes, the Coleman camp, and especially Fritz Knaak, were all belligerence and vinegar.  But when Al Franken picked up 176 votes and wound up with a 225-vote margin, suddenly Knaak has gone relatively quiet:

Soon after, when asked about a legal contest beyond the count, Knaak seemed to back off from his pretty strong fightin’ words Friday about a legal contest.

At that time, he had said, "An election challenge is inevitable. There’s no doubt in my mind, that’s the case."

Barely 24 hours later, he said, "If necessary … we are prepared to go forward to take whatever legal action necessary to remedy this artificial lead …"

Was he suggesting the end-game litigation by Coleman won’t happen?

"You always give yourself a little wiggle room," Knaak said, still adding that, really, yes, they were going to take this to court.

Still, he added even more, "You always allow yourself a chance to reflect."

There’s not much time for that — the Franken win is set to be certified tomorrow, and even though the Minnesota Supreme Court has yet to rule on Coleman’s most recent legal motion, an effort to add into the count about 400 rejected ballots from heavily-Republican areas of Hennepin County, Coleman’s past track record with the Supremes has been pretty poor. 

So why hasn’t Knaak filed yet another motion?  I thought for sure that he’d have done so by now.  

My guess is that it is one thing to challenge an 49-vote or an 80-vote margin, but quite another to challenge a 225-vote margin.   Furthermore, in such a challenge, the loser pays all court costs.  Granted, the Republican National Committee very much wants to keep Norm’s seat in Republican hands, but Norm might not have the cash for yet another losing legal motion.

Stay tuned, folks:  The next twenty-four hours will be interesting.