coleman-shrug“I think it’s time for (Norm Coleman) to give up this fight,” writes conservative pundit and National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru, after Al Franken widened his lead to 312 votes in a Minnesota courtroom Tuesday (h/t Wonkette). The Albert Lea Tribune, which endorsed Coleman last fall, put it even more succinctly: “Throw in the towel.”

Below, comments from the courthouse in St. Paul hosting the Senate trial that now shows Franken has a 312-vote lead.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, responding to a reporter after court adjourned today, about Coleman’s contention that his training of local officials was inadequate :

I’ll be interested to hear from the (election trial judges). … They appear not to have believed a word of it.

Coleman staffer Tom Erickson, approaching reporters after Ritchie finished speaking:

What did he have to say? “Nothing to see here — everything is fine”?

Franken attorney Marc Elias:

It is a sense of relief that it’s over, at a personal level.

Elias, in response to a reporter’s question:

I think the only way I’ll have a chance to talk to (U.S. Supreme Court) Justice (Antonin) Scalia about equal protection in a year is if we meet in a diner … in Bethesda (Md.).

Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg, responding to Pioneer Press reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger, who asked first “What did your client do wrong to lose votes in a trial he started?” and then “Sorry, Ben, do you have anything other than rhetoric to back that up?” after he claimed that counting more ballots would give his client a winning margin:

If you did the reporting and looked at where the ballots were from …

Stassen-Berger, after Ginsberg finished speaking to reporters:

You want me to do the research? Give me the numbers!

Ginsberg on Coleman’s whereabouts:

He had a previous engagement. He’ll be … around.

Election-contest trial Judge Denise Reilly, looking down the bench at her colleagues, Judges Elizabeth Hayden and Kurt Marden, after they again leaned their heads together to share whispers:

(Reilly didn’t say anything but continued to stare in their direction after the kibitzing session ended.)

Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, after opening the last absentee-ballot envelope:

That’s it.