The malfeasance committed by the Coleman camp with their star witness Pamela Howell may well have knocked away whatever remained of the Coleman case, which as TPM’s Eric Kleefeld notes was already on shaky ground with their admission that the 132 missing ballots from a Minneapolis precinct did indeed exist:  "This past Monday night, the court denied Franken’s motion for summary judgment on this — but it was only because the existence of the ballots was still a point of factual contention in the case. Furthermore, the court acknowledged in their opinion the body of case law pointing to including the votes. But they had to settle the factual dispute."  If the facts are all settled, that’s all, folks — at least for the trial phase.  We can then move on to the appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

How weak is Norm’s case?  Kleefeld stated last Tuesday — and remember, this is before the Coleman case was buffeted by the Howell catastrophe and the admission that the missing Minneapolis ballots really had existed after all — that a recent ruling by the Election Contest Court showed that the court had serious doubts as to whether the Coleman case could actually succeed on the merits.   This, after the Coleman team spent five weeks presenting it in court!

And as frequent FDL commenter Sara notes, the ECC is going to be looking today at the Franken call for summary judgment to dismiss the case in its entirety.   If the ECC grants the Franken summary judgment motion, then Al Franken could be seated in a few weeks if not days.  Fingers crossed!

Even worse, the whole rationale for the Coleman camp’s carrying on what they know is a lost cause — the desire to delay Franken’s being seated and hope that the Republicans have enough senators to block Democratic legislation — may be rendered moot by Jim Bunning’s temper tantrum in Kentucky.  From the Louisville Courier-Journal, by way of Howie Klein over at DownWithTyranny!, we discover the following:

Already in conflict with his party’s leaders, Sen. Jim Bunning has reportedly said privately that if he is hindered in raising money for his re-election campaign he is ready with a response that would be politically devastating for Senate Republicans: his resignation.

The Kentucky Republican suggested that possible scenario at a campaign fundraiser for him on Capitol Hill earlier this week, according to three sources who asked not to be identified because of the politically sensitive nature of Bunning’s remarks.

The implication, they said, was that Bunning would allow Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, to appoint his replacement– a move that could give Democrats the 60 votes they need to block Republican filibusters in the Senate.

“I would get the last laugh. Don’t forget Kentucky has a Democrat governor,” one of the sources quoted Bunning as saying.

“The only logical extension of that comment is, ‘(Make me mad) … enough and I’ll resign, and then you’ve got 60 Democrats,’ ” said another source who was present at the event.

That was the clear message Bunning was sending, said a third source who heard the senator’s remarks at the fundraiser, which attracted about 15 people.

…“Why would he say that?” attendees asked each other, according to the source.

One source said he contacted a Bunning campaign official and warned, “This is going to get out– there were 15 to 20 people who heard this and it’s newsworthy.”

Now, Bunning almost immediately issued a pro forma denial, but the bell was already rung.  When well over a dozen of the state’s most well-connected people hear you say something, it’s kinda tough to pretend it never happened.  Denied or not, as Howie says, the message was already sent to Miss Mitch McConnell and the other high-powered Republicans trying to force Bunning to forego his re-election campaign (as they know he’ll go down in flames) and serve out the residue of his term while somebody else runs in his stead.