franken-coleman-court.thumbnail.jpgWhile we wait for the three-judge panel to render their rulings, here are some more tidbits on the election, the recount, and other related matters:

– The Politico continues to faithfully transmit GOP press releases.  Manu Raju tells us what we already knew — that the Republicans want Norm to keep up his recount contest as long as he can, simply to deny the Democrats a Senate seat for as long as they can.  Which would have been fine if he’d stopped there.  But then he mixed in a bunch of hooey: namely, the idea that Norm has a shot at using legal action to continue to forestall Franken’s being seated once the Minnesota Supreme Court deep-sixes his appeal of the Election Contest Court’s rulings.  Raju needs to start reading the Minnesota online media:  As Eric Black of MinnPost reported two weeks ago (and I referenced here), the Minnesota Supreme Court’s justices have in their rulings on this case, been consistently referring to the end of the case being when the state courts are done with it — in other words, once they, as members of the highest state court in Minnesota, have reached their decision on this case, the certificate question is over, even if Coleman appeals to the Federal level.  

So guess what?  The Republicans can throw all the money they want at this — and really, I wish they would, because all the legal activity in St. Paul and all the spending generated by the hordes of lawyers in town for the past five months has helped the local economy more than the RNC ever did — and it won’t matter one bit for Normy because once the state Supremes flush this contest and appeal down the toilet, Al Franken gets his election certificate.

– Somebody tell Norm’s donors that it’s not all about the Benjamins:  A group donating to and raising money for Coleman has sent out a fundraising appeal that refers to Al "Franklin".  Though I hear that Al "Ben" Franken might have invented a new stove and set down the fundamental laws of electricity, so who knows?

– Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Pioneer Press has the final findings of fact filed for both the Franken and Coleman teams.  The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate was found floating flagrantly nearby.  Earlier, Stassen-Berger Twittered that in their final briefs to the court, Franken and Coleman increased the number of absentee ballots they say should be counted. Coleman’s number is 1,984, whilst Franken’s is 432.