As noted earlier this week, the length of time it takes Norm Coleman’s legal team to get around to filing their promised appeal will be indicative of whether they’re making a good-faith case or if they’re just in it to drag out the time before Al Franken can be seated in the US Senate. He has ten days to do so, and he’s used up nearly half of those days already.

I wish the Republicans’ chief backers would cough up tens of millions of dollars for Norm. I really do. Because coughing it up for something that is really starting to piss off even us normally-patient Minnesotans will not only NOT make Norm Coleman a senator again, it’s also just the perfect recipe for guaranteeing that Tim Pawlenty loses his bid to stay on as governor next year — which means that a Democrat gets to decide which of Minnesota’s congressional districts goes bye-bye after the 2010 census is done. (Hint: Michele Bachmann shouldn’t get too comfy.)

Earlier this week, MinnPost’s Eric Black was optimistic that Norm Coleman really wasn’t going to try to wring every last little bit of delay from the Senate contest endgame. But now Ben Ginsberg says the appeal may not be filed until next week.

In the midst of a step-by-step explanation of the remaining portions of the Franken-Coleman endgame (which he states will end with Franken being seated in the Senate either next month or in June, depending on how long each part of the process is dragged out), MinnPost’s Eric Black takes a little time to tell some folks to chill out.

I was wondering what was taking the Election Contest Court so long to issue their ruling in the wake of the final vote count last Tuesday. Now I know why. They were crafting a 24-karat platinum boot to be sent upside the head of Norm Coleman.

The Election Contest has ruled, unanimously, for Al Franken. In a 68-page decision, the ECC kicks Norm Coleman’s equal-protection argument to the curb, pointing out that county officials must have some leeway when making decisions on how to hold elections.

FDL’s good friend Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny! caught something interesting over the weekend: Namely, that Minnesota State Supreme Court Justice Christopher Dietzen, a Pawlenty appointee and someone who may be the court’s most partisan member, has donated thousands of dollars to Republican candidates — including, as Senate Guru notes, two donations to Norm Coleman — as well as to the RNC. This raises the question of whether Dietzen should follow Eric Magnuson’s lead and recuse himself from the contest.

Well, we got a ruling from the Election Contest Court today — and while it was a ruling, it wasn’t the one we’ve been waiting to see. Sixty-one Franken voters, represented by attorney Charles Nauen and hence collectively known as the Nauen voters, had filed suit in order to get their absentee ballots counted. Thirty-six of these voters had their ballots counted in the final vote count on Tuesday; the rest were not allowed to have their ballots counted. Meanwhile, Republican Party of Minnesota chair Ron Carey has inadvertently admitted what we all knew, that Al Franken is our elected representative.

The three judges that make up the Election Contest Court sure move a lot slower than do the ones on the state Supreme Court. The votes were counted two days ago, the counting is finished, and you’d think that it wouldn’t be that tough to simply say “Okay, Franken won, Norm can appeal, the ten-day clock for Norm to announce what we all know he’s going to do starts ticking NOW” and then bang the gavel. So while we wait and wait and wait and wait, here are some amuse-gueules to keep you entertained and fed:

As mentioned yesterday, the Coleman portion of Operation Stonewall is so lame that even some conservative voices are calling Norm out on continuing it. One conservative voice that has consistently departed from the GOP herd in criticizing the Coleman legal team’s strategy, if not their goals, has been Powerline blogger Scott Johnson. In this piece for National Review (h/t Polinaut and Polanimal), he sorrowfully tells his fellow cons that not only didn’t Al Franken “steal” the election, but that Norm Coleman’s legal team lost it for Norm right from the get-go.