DRAGRA ad courtesy of Tild, Ollie Ox and Centristy

For all the woofin’ being done by Michael Steele and others about how Norm’s going to be fighting to the bitter end to get back Paul Wellstone’s Senate seat, I strongly suspect that his mind is no longer on the contest and appeal.   He’s already trying to figure out how he’s going to afford the next big legal challenge, the Kazeminy lawsuits, as refinancing his house for the thirteenth time is no longer an option in this crashed real-estate market.   That’s why, as MinnPost’s Cynthia Dizikes notes, he’s asking the Federal Elections Commission to allow him to use campaign funds to pay his Kazeminy legal fees:

The lawsuits, one filed in Texas and the other in Delaware, both allege that Minnesota businessman Nasser Kazeminy had $75,000 sent to Coleman in the form of insurance payments made to a company employing Coleman’s wife, Laurie.

In the request submitted to the FEC, the Coleman team said, “Counsel has been preparing for the potential involvement of Senator Coleman as a witness in the matters, and pursuant to law, preserving documents that may prove relevant.”

[...]

In the Texas case, Paul McKim, the former chief executive officer of Deep Marine Technology Inc., claims that Kazeminy, who is a Deep Marine shareholder, pressured him to overlook the payments. The Delaware lawsuit, filed by other company shareholders, cites McKim as a defendant and basically makes the same allegations, relying on a "confidential informant."

Now both of the Colemans, as well as Kazeminy, a longtime friend and financial backer of the former senator, have denied any wrongdoing.  There hasn’t been any blatant smoking-gun evidence of any funds being transferred to Coleman or his wife, and neither was named as a defendant in either Kazeminy lawsuit.  But Norm obviously isn’t expecting to remain untouched by the Kazeminy storm — or else he wouldn’t be looking to ensure his lawyers in the case are well-compensated.