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)

Videos and audio link after the jump, with Pawlenty missing a chance to promote Duluth and Klobuchar missing a chance to make a gratuitous Prince reference (we help her with that). 

Pawlenty, on NPR, had some discouraging words about the stimulus package’s prospects but volunteered that Minnesota has a list of transportation projects ready to go in the next 90 days, including Hwy. 610 in the northern suburbs.

By now, Pawlenty is eschewing his formerly wholesale rejection of the stimulus package for piecemeal pooh-poohing. On NPR you could hear him spit out mild contempt for decadent projects proposed for the state’s recreation and related tourist industries:

We had cities requesting snowmaking equipment, and that was Duluth, for something called Spirit Mountain outside of Duluth.

(Ahem, Governor? This is where you make a brief aside for the national listening audience about how great it is to visit Spirit Mountain and Duluth.) Anyway, back to the bad fun:

We had another community requesting funds to rehabilitate a country club at a golf course. We had another city that wanted to build some tennis courts. So those aren’t the kinds of things in this time of crisis that would be priority measures.

Pawlenty recently joined the chorus warning that the stimulus could result in a revival of that dread 1970s trend, stagflation:

You could see the whiplash effect of this being inflation, or stagflation even, in the intermediate term, so if people are going to rewrite the history, I would suggest they look at it not just one year out but three and five years out as well.

Tuesday was Pawlenty’s second appearance on Maddow’s show. The first time, Nov. 3, he opened with the announcement “I’m available, I’m available” (to go on the show, he meant, although the context of the ensuing interview was also his availability for higher office in the future). This time he greeted Maddow with the Goldie Hawn-ish endearment, “You’re funny.”

Here is the video clip of Pawlenty’s appearance on Maddow’s show Tuesday night:

Maddow’s online video archive indicates three previous appearances by Klobuchar (Sept. 17 and Oct. 8 and 31). A highlight of this one was the DFL senator’s prediction about how long it will take for Minnesota’s Senate delegation to be complete.  Here’s a brief transcription and Monday’s video clip:

KLOBUCHAR: 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.

MADDOW: Is that the sort of thing where you guys throw a cinder block into it to really help things along?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, oftentimes people dive into it to show how tough they are in the cold. But anyway, hopefully we will get this done in a month or so because the trial’s been going on. It could be even sooner.

That may be the first time in 25 years that jumping into Lake Minnetonka has penetrated the nation’s consciousness. The last time, of course, was Prince’s “initiation” of Apollonia Vanity (that’s a character’s name, not a character flaw) in the movie “Purple Rain.” Here’s a transcript of that scene (a variation on the dog-bite routine from “The Pink Panther”):

PRINCE: You have to purify yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

APOLLONIA: What?!

PRINCE: You have to purify yourself in Lake Minnetonka.

[APOLLONIA disrobes and gets ready to jump in.]

PRINCE: Hey, wait a minute that’s– [splash!] Uh, hold it.

APOLLONIA: What?!

PRINCE: That ain’t Lake Minnetonka.

YouTube has a video clip of the scene but it is not safe for work and not – repeat: not – safe for re-enactment by Norm Coleman or Al Franken, nor indeed by any of their attorneys, notably Joe Friedberg, Ben Ginsberg, David Lillehaug and Marc Elias.

But if they do, The UpTake will carry it live.