It’s a training exercise for junior senators to sit in as president; according to spokeswoman Jess McIntosh, this was Franken’s second stint with the gavel.

And today he used it — rapping the rostrum to interrupt Sen. Jeff Sessions and announce the order of speakers: Sessions, Sen. Patrick Leahy,  Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

For a guy who only a week or two ago didn’t seem to know how to get a committee chair’s attention or put a document into the record, Franken displayed considerable parliamentary aplomb this afternoon, authoritatively intoning such standard utterances as ”The clerk will call the roll,” “Without objection,” and “The Senate will suspend the rules.”

The U.S. Senate took an hour out of its time Thursday to honor former Sen. Norm Coleman. Here are video clips with the complete tributes to Coleman from 10 senators (seven of Coleman’s fellow Republicans and three Democrats, including Amy Klobuchar), as well as transcribed highlights of their remarks — with particular attention to what they had to say about their former colleague’s future.

In the order in which they spoke, listed below are the 10 senators who gave Senate-floor testimonials to Norm Coleman on Thursday. After each name is an text excerpt from and full video of the senator’s speech. Click on the senator’s name to see the full transcription of his or her remarks.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.):

Today we honor our colleague and friend for that long career that we hope is far from over. And we punctuate an incredibly hard fought campaign that some people thought might never end. In the end, it didn’t turn out the way many of us had hoped it would. … And I have no doubt that this is not the last we will hear from Norm Coleman.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.):

I enjoyed serving with Norm … I wish Senator Coleman the very best in his future endeavors …

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.):

If Norm Coleman could have found some way to make the 2000 Presidential election Bush v. Gore v. Coleman, Norm would have been a participant in every single one of the most spectacular political races of the last decade. … He proved to be determined and courageous and, in the Minnesota tradition, a happy warrior in attempting to make sure that every Minnesota vote counted in the race, which was decided by just a few votes.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.):

Norm and Laurie are my friends. I wish them the very best as they go forward in their lives. I know they will find other opportunities to be of service to the people of Minnesota and to the people of the United States, and I might daresay also to the people of Florida because Norm has a great affection for my State, where he has spent a lot of his time.

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah):

I simply add my voice of gratitude for the opportunity of serving with Norm Coleman and my best wishes for him in his future activities. He is a young and vigorous enough man that I think we will hear far more from him in the years ahead.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.):

So to Norm Coleman I simply say we will miss you in the Senate. We are not going to let him go away, though. I still talk to him on a regular basis and will continue to do so and will seek his advice …

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.):

I had the opportunity to talk with Norm right after the supreme court in Minnesota ruled against him. I was struck, once again, by his determination to do what he felt was best for his state, even though it was not best for him. I was also touched by his commitment, once again, to his constituents and to moving on and ensuring that they had two Senators representing them.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.):

He was always very courteous and always a gentleman with me. I never heard him say a negative word about me. I cannot ever recall saying anything negative about him. … [H]e is a relatively young man, and I am sure with his educational background and his notoriety in Minnesota, he will have a bright future.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.):

Second only to his family has been his dedication to public service. It has literally defined his adult life. Maybe it was sheer destiny that he found his way to the Senate. After all, he is a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn, which is also the alma mater of two of our Senate colleagues — Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders. Norm hit the ground running in politics, and he has not stopped.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.):

If he were here, I think he would tell you that in coming to the Senate–and I would tell you the same thing — he can now look back on some of the things he was involved in getting done, such as being involved in the big debates over the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts or Justice Sam Alito — these were big debates in which we were all involved in seeing good people put on the Supreme Court of this country.

Norm Coleman Photo: WDCpix

Former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman “deserves an easy, humdrum, conventional political race some day,” said his former colleague, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. The remark was part of a bipartisan, tag-team series of testaments to Coleman that consumed an hour on the Senate floor this morning. Sen. Amy Klobuchar thanked Coleman for bowing out of his election contest with Al Franken.

“Senator Coleman made a very difficult decision and he did it with such grace,” the Minnesota Democrat said, adding:

He could have appealed that [Minnesota Supreme Court] decision. He could have gone to federal court. It was his right. But he made a decision which he felt was best for the state of Minnesota, and the state thanks him for that. I personally thank him for that.

In Sen. Harry Reid’s tribute, the Majority Leader said Coleman had been courteous and gentlemanly in his interactions, which included a protracted post-election standoff in which Reid several times backed down from vows to seat Franken early.

If Coleman agrees with Alexander about seeking something more humdrum than three wild statewide elections so far, he may not decide to enter the already crowded 2010 race for Minnesota governor. Last week, he said he’d announce his plans soon after the Fourth of July.

“I am going to work day and night to make sure that our kids have a great future and that America’s best days lay ahead,” Franken said in a brief, mid-day appearance with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Franken pledged to focus his efforts on revitalizing the economy, overhauling the country’s health-care system, developing new energy sources and bolstering the nation’s schools.

“Minnesotans are very practical people,” he said. “They want to make sure that the work we do here in the Senate makes sense.”

Reid and Franken took no questions from reporters. Franken is slated to be sworn in as Minnesota’s junior senator tomorrow. He’ll become the legislative body’s 60th Democrat, giving the party a filibuster-proof majority.

“Much has been made about the expectations for Al Franken joining the Senate,” Reid said. “He of course is going to work hard for the people of Minnesota. They’ve gone far too long without full representation.”

Sen. Richard Burr

CQ Politics reported today that a GOP Web ad aims to raise money for Norm Coleman so Republicans can count on having 42 votes in the U.S. Senate. Huh? Turns out the YouTube video the story describes — replete with pleading cameos from nine senators and two others — is three months old. (CQ Politics has since pulled the post but it’s still available via Yahoo.) Even so, the new-media misfire has value as a short-term time capsule, revealing how far fortunes have fallen for Coleman and his party.

Some choice quotes from the CQ Politics post:

“A little bit of money right now could make the difference,” [Sen. James] Inhofe [R-Ok.] implored.

That pitch made more sense in February, with Coleman’s election-contest trial underway, but that effort succeeded only in increasing Franken’s lead to 312 votes. Now Coleman has only one reply brief to file and an oral argument to make before the Minnesota Supreme Court takes his appeal of the trial court’s decision into their own hands.

“We need 42 Republicans .. . We need to start the trend of growing the Republican minority so we can be the majority,” [Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.] said.

The number 42 is what really dates the story to the Pre-Specterian Era. With Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter’s defection from the Republican Party, Democrats are now close enough to reaching 60 seats (leaving the GOP with 40) that Majority Leader Harry Reid can feel it.

Here’s the Coleman for Senate video, for old times’ sake:

Featured, besides Inhofe and Burr, are Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; John Thune, R-S.D.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., along with House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Saving grace: no Specter.

The C-SPAN2 video clip is here (Franken line comes at the 7:35 mark).

David Hayes will be confirmed. If I have to wait until Al Franken comes, he’s going to be confirmed. We are going to confirm David Hayes. Everyone should understand that. If we happen to lose this today, I will just move to reconsider until we have the votes.

Having the votes may not actually require Franken. Yesterday’s vote was 57-39, with Reid strategically voting against Hayes so he could more easily bring his nomination back on a future day.

Three Democrats were out sick, and two Republicans voted for the nomination. With all Democrats on hand the filibuster could fall — if Reid can keep at least one GOP defector.

But that may not be easy, since one of the Democrats is Edward Kennedy, whose battle with brain cancer keeps him away from the Capitol for most votes. Errant Republicans will feel strong pressure to close ranks.

And that’s where the wait for Franken could come in.

Should his 312-vote lead survive review by the Minnesota Supreme Court after oral arguments set for June 1, Franken could be seated in the Senate quickly — as long as Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty issues him an election certificate.

Fast forward to this week. On Monday, April 13, at exactly 6 p.m., the three-judge panel in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken election-contest trial released its decision that Franken had indeed won election to the U.S. Senate.

Now the spooky part: Precisely 42 minutes after the judges made their decision public, came the official declaration of ice-out on Lake Minnetonka.

Here’s what Klobuchar said two months ago:

My prediction, Rachel, is that we will have a new senator by the time the ice melts on Lake Minnetonka, which that is predicted to be April 11.

She was wrong about April 11 — or rather, whoever’s prediction she cited was wrong. But ice-out day on Lake Minnetonka is hard to predict. Records show it has come as early as March 11 (in 1878) and as late as May 8 (1856).

Now Klobuchar has taken some heat for some unforeseen consequences of a law she authored banning lead in toys. But allowing for a broad interpretation of the phrase “have a new senator,” Klobuchar proved herself spectacularly accurate – off by less than an hour – about the timing of what history likely will show was the moment when Minnesota knew who its next Senator would be.

Much more accurate anyway than any of the predictions by the person in perhpas the best position to make something happen: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose latest failed prognostication about filling Minnesota’s seat passed without incident on April Fool’s Day.

Here’s the video clip from Maddow’s Feb. 16 program. Klobuchar’s prediction comes at the 3:45 mark.

 And here’s Maddow again on April 17, with a segment based on this post (starts at about the 3:00 mark):

And here’s a video clip of Klobuchar on CNN’s “State of the Union with John King” on April 19, (prediction talk starts at the 12:00 mark, transcript excerpt below):

KING: So, Senator Klobuchar, when will this be over? And I assume you’ve told Al Franken that even if he wins in the end, you will still be Minnesota’s funniest senator?

(LAUGHTER)

KLOBUCHAR: Well, all right, first of all, I would say this, and that is that Norm Coleman has a right to pursue his appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. But Minnesota also has a right to two senators. This has been going on for months now. Since December, our staff, I’m so proud of them, they’ve had double the case work. Everything from veterans benefits cases to people who have lost their Social Security checks to people who are trying to adopt babies in Guatemala that are stalled out.

Minnesota has that right to two senators. I’m hopeful the Minnesota Supreme Court is going to move very quickly on this. The law actually says in Minnesota that they have to set aside their other work.

Now, I had predicted this would be resolved when the ice melted on Lake Minnetonka, John. And the three-judge ruling came out, 42 minutes, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources declared the ice had melted.

Now I predict this will be done when Minnesotans are allowed to swim in our lakes, which is Memorial weekend.

KING: I will have you back in five or six weeks, Memorial Day weekend. I think my math is about right on that. It might be a little more. Amy Klobuchar, John Ensign, senators both, thank you very much for being here today.

(hat tip: MPR’s Polinaut)

This time the two sides are swapping positions about whether Minnesotans or non-Minnesotans should decide the race.

When Majority Leader Harry Reid was making plausible noises about the Senate seating Franken, Coleman’s camp declared that the decision should be left to the state’s voters.

Now that even Coleman’s own lead lawyer is publicly predicting he’ll lose the election contest trial, the former senator’s side is signaling it’ll seek a different result in federal court.

That leaves Franken’s forces to demand now that the decision stay within the borders of the Gopher State.

UPDATE after the jump: It was a week ago that Cornyn said an appeal “could take years.”

Cornyn, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has so far been winning a war of words with Reid over the standoff. Reid backed down from earlier vows to seat Franken after Republicans threatened to filibuster.

The rhetorical art of metaphorical war — a topic on which U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann recently gave the nation a clinic — is likely to ramp up this week as anticipation grows for the impending decision by Minnesota’s three-judge panel in the election-contest lawsuit brought by Coleman.

UPDATE: Cornyn’s contention that a Coleman appeal in federal courts could take years is ricocheting around the blogosphere this morning, apparently because it’s again referenced in Manu Raju’s Politico post today. But Cornyn made that statement a week ago, after the Republicans’ weekly lunch last Tuesday, as Raju then reported. The full quote:

I know it seems it’s gone on for a long time already, but this could go on for a long time. Appeals take months, if not years, sometimes.

When and to whom did Cornyn make the “World War III” comment Raju reported for apparently the first time today? I’ve asked Raju that question by e-mail and will update again here if I get a response.

Harry Reid (WDCpix)

Senate Majority Harry Reid is drawing a new line in the snow, naming a date by which he’s pledging to have Al Franken seated as Minnesota’s next senator: April Fool’s Day. Democrats will invoke the Senate’s privilege to seat members to the body regardless of where former Sen. Norm Coleman’s court battle stands at that time, Reid told reporters.

Republicans said Reid must hold off until Coleman exhausts legal options for undoing Franken’s election recount lead and threatened to filibuster any effort to seat the Democrat. Reid offered advice: ”Norm Coleman should have a five-minute conversation with (Sen.) John Ensign (R-Nev.),” … John Ensign wound up as a real hero in Nevada (after bowing to Reid rather than pursuing a recount in their 1998 Senate contest).