The End of the Middle of the End?

That’s the word on the street:

PIM has now heard from two sources on different sides of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race recount scene that the final Minnesota Supreme Court ruling is expected to arrive tomorrow, Thursday, June 18th. The ruling could arrive between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., a shift from the earlier deadline of 5 p.m. (The PioPress‘ Rachel Stassen-Berger said it was because the clerks head out at 4:30.) The official Senate race judicial information page is here, and this is the RSS feed which would likely carry the notification.

The rumor continues on to say that the contest ruling by the three-judge panel is expected to be upheld, which would mean another victory for Al Franken.

Where do we go from there? Well, it’s all tea-leaf reading, but recent signs have strongly suggested that the NRSC and Norm Coleman are leaning toward accepting this outcome; there doesn’t seem to be much ammunition for an appeal into the federal courts, and with no allegations of fraud (Joe Friedberg, Coleman’s attorney, specifically stated as much during oral arguments), there’s just not that much stomach left for fighting this. It’s possible that Franken could have his election certificate in hand by Friday.

Of course, if Coleman changes his mind, it’s anyone’s guess. Lame-duck Gov. Tim Pawlenty has said he’ll sign an election certificate when the time comes, but he’s left that deliberately vague. My guess is that he’ll drag his feet a bit to give Coleman a chance to seek a stay if he wants to — not because Pawlenty likes Coleman (he doesn’t), but because Pawlenty’s running for President, and he knows it would play well for the partisans. But I also expect Pawlenty ultimately won’t refuse to sign the certificate.

If I were a betting man, I’d say that Al Franken will be seated no later than June 26. But this has twisted and turned so many times that at this point, I wouldn’t put more than the table minimum down on it. In any event, hopefully tomorrow we at least get one step closer to resolution.