Phoenix Woman here, and while I really don’t have any news on the Franken-Coleman thing — nor will I, or anyone else really, until June 1 when the Minnesota Supreme Court hears the oral arguments in the appeal case — I believe I do have some insight into the oft-asked question “How can Minnesotans, who used to be known for their sane and level-headed liberalism, elect dorky Republicans like Norm Coleman, Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann to public office?”

While a number of institutional LGBT rights organizations (that have made significant progress at the state level) today cautioned against federal action, John Dean, appearing on Wednesday’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, makes the case that regardless of state decisions and citizens’ votes, marriage equality has become a national, federal civil rights issue, just as was Loving v. Virginia in 1967, in which the US Supreme Court ruled against interracial marriage bans.

Puppethead reminded me that yesterday was Al Franken’s birthday. Sorry I missed it, Al! I figure I’ll try to make it up to Al by talking about how he seems to have grown as a candidate and a person in the two years he’s been on the campaign trail.

And we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more. Man, June 1 can’t come soon enough. That’s the date set by the Minnesota Supreme Court for oral arguments in the Coleman appeal of the Election Contest Court’s verdict on Coleman’s contest of the Minnesota senate recount that Al Franken won.

Cruised by the UpTake’s liveblog and spotted this Tweet from Rachel Stassen-Berger: ” Rt/ @Rasmussenpoll 54% Say Coleman shld concede;63% say Franken will win,16% expect Coleman win http://tinyurl.com/RR0203 #mncontest”. Wow. That’s the second time this week I suspect that longtime Republican pollster Scott Rasmussen didn’t get the result he wanted.

Pharaoh Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota governor and would-be Republican presidential candidate, has made it clear that he values the good opinion of Grover Norquist and Republican primary voters more than he values his own state.

While we wait for The Glorious First of June, the date on which oral arguments will be held before the Minnesota Supreme Court in RE: the Norm Coleman appeal, I thought I’d take a little time to talk about Twitter — specifically, about those who seem to know how to use it sensibly.

Well, Team Coleman has finally issued their reply (h/t to The UpTake for posting the PDF) to the devastating response of Team Franken’s to the Coleman appeal brief. Guess what? Team Coleman’s strategy with regard to the Franken brief is apparently to pretend it never happened, because their ‘reply’ doesn’t address any of its arguments at all, but simply restates their appeal brief. Even funnier is that they actually are now making stuff up as they go along.

As we wait for the Coleman response, if any, to Team Franken’s devastating counterfiling to the Coleman appeal of the Election Contest Court’s ruling that Al Franken won the 2008 Minnesota election for Paul Wellstone’s old Senate seat, here are some tidbits for you to digest.

Ever since December, reports have been floating around about the FBI’s interest in both the Nasser Kazeminy case and in Norm Coleman’s ties to it. Now, those reports have been given a bit more substance: A Minnesota person who has been interviewed by the FBI in regard to the case says that the FBI is indeed investigating allegations that former Senator Norm Coleman had clothing and other items, such as vacation trips for himself and his family, purchased on his behalf by Kazeminy.