UPDATED after the jump with more new newspaper editorials.

The Times’ editorial today is a shade less emphatic than the one that ushered former Sen. Tom Daschle out of consideration as President Obama’s secretary of health and human services. Former Sen. Coleman is unlikely to do what Daschle did when faced with “Daschle ought to step aside” and heed the Times’ advice with same-day service.

But the Times’ headline, “‘It’s Over, Norm. O.K.?,’” says it all with a phrase that’s direct and succinct, if borrowed (from former U.S. Rep. and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough). It’s almost worthy of a tabloid rival like the New York Daily News, which set the standard in the 1970s with the famous “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

Compare it to the Star Tribune’s editorial headline on Wednesday, “Expedite appeal in election contest,” which said nothing.

The Las Vegas Sun also lays it on the line today in an editorial under the heading “Time to step aside: Republican Coleman should cede Minnesota Senate race to Democrat Franken.” Its kicker: “The longer (Coleman) persists in his charade, the more he hurts his own state.”

The Jamestown (S.D.) Sun today reprints an editorial (“Coleman’s time has run out”) that ran last week in the Albert Lea Tribune — one of the earliest in the recent crop of Minnesota newspaper advice for Coleman. 

Also new today are in-state editorials from the St. Paul Pioneer Press (“we make the case for a state high court review”), the St. Cloud Times (“time to stop fight”), and the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Daily (“Certify Franken”). (Hat tip: Braublog)

Related: 
Give up, Coleman: Quotes from the election-contest courthouse and beyond
More free advice for Coleman from media, punditry
The conservative case for why Coleman should drop out
As world awaits order in senate trial, sideshows and catcalls continue
Drumbeat grows louder for Coleman to concede soon

Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School, lauds the the “careful, unanimous” ruling of the three-judge panel on his blog. “It makes findings of fact and conclusions of law that on first read appear reasonable and conservative,” Hasen writes. “The opinion considers the major arguments made by Coleman and rejects them in a detailed and measured way. It is the kind of opinion that is unlikely to be disturbed on appeal by either the Minnesota Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court.”

Nate Silver, over at FiveThirtyEight, declares that Coleman’s prospects for prevailing have now reached “Calista Flockhart territory.” Silver also comes up with an estimate for how much the former senator might be spending to keep the legal fight going. His (admittedly imprecise) conclusion: $145,000 per week.

While the numbers guru figures Coleman’s odds of prevailing in the courts are incredibly slim, he also doesn’t see too many other options for the Republican politically. “His best bet might be to wait until 2014, when Franken would be up for re-election, but six years is a lifetime in politics,” Silver concludes. “Although Coleman’s chances of prevailing in his legal case are not very strong, they may be better than his next-best alternatives.”

NBC News’ First Read blog is equally dismissive of Coleman’s prospects. “We’ll say it again: The question increasingly is no longer whether Al Franken will be the next U.S. senator from Minnesota; it’s when he’ll be the next senator.”

Not surprisingly, Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called on Coleman to concede.
“Enough is enough,” Kaine said in a statement. “It is time for Norm Coleman to concede and for Al Franken to be sworn in as the next U.S. Senator from Minnesota. The voters of Minnesota months ago elected Al Franken to the Senate — and during every step in the legal process that judgment has been confirmed.”

Slightly less predictable was the reaction of MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. “When are the Republicans gonna give up the ghost on this?” Scarborough asked on today’s edition of “Morning Joe.” “Norm, I like you. You lost. Can we seat a senator so Amy [Klobuchar] doesn’t have to do the job of two senators. … It is seriously not fair to constituents in Minnesota to drag this out any longer. It’s over, Norm.”

Here’s the video of Scarborough:

With no evidence of fraud in Minnesota’s Senate recount, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are pushing the meme. On today’s edition of “Morning Joe,” the discussion turned to the possibility of the Democrats gaining a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which might hinge on a victory by Al Franken. Trotting out the repeatedly refuted ballots-in-car-trunk fable, the pair had this exchange:

SCARBOROUGH: They’ve got this run-off in Georgia, which could get them to 59. And then if Al Franken – yeah.

BRZEZINSKI: Franken, yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: If Al Franken steals enough votes in Minnesota –

BRZEZINSKI: They could get to 60.

SCARBOROUGH: — they get to 60. I’m not saying he stole any votes –

BRZEZINSKI: They’re gonna find them in the trunk of a car.