Kiplinger.com‘s Washington Matters blog says,

… it’s almost time for Coleman to do the right thing and accept defeat. … It’s almost time for him — and Gov. Pawlenty — to do the right thing and give up this fruitless quest. That means letting the Minnesota Supreme Court make the final decision and not drawing this out unnecessarily with a federal challenge. There comes a point when a legitimate legal right becomes a frivolous lawsuit, and we’re almost there.

In an editorial that appears in today’s print edition, USA Today wrote:

The further Coleman’s case goes up the judicial ladder, the more strained its reasoning sounds. It is one thing to ask a trial court to review the work of election authorities to make sure they carefully followed the law and their own guidelines. It is another to say that in making a series of tough calls on individual ballots, they grievously violated some important legal or constitutional principle. … We would like to think that candidates would put the public interest ahead of their ambitions. They might choose not to litigate elections endlessly.

The National Review has led a conservative drumbeat over the last week announcing that Coleman’s parade is over. Stepping up as the weekend’s drum majorette was Washington, D.C. editor Kate O’Beirne, speaking on the Bloomberg TV show “Political Capital”:

Norm Coleman is not going to get credit for stepping aside graciously if he does it only after he’s exhausted all court appeals. It seems, I think, he was outhustled and outlawyered. It might well be time for him to acknowledge a Franken win.

O’Beirne on “Political Capital” (comments on Coleman begin at the 4:35 mark):

The Star Tribune’s Lori Sturdevant witnessed the ballot-counting at the election-contest trial last week that increased Franken’s margin to 312 votes. In the newspaper’s lead Sunday opinion column, she wrote that that outcome left Minnesotans muttering, “Enough.” She grants Coleman time for one last appeal — but no more:

A state Supreme Court ruling — and pray, make it quick — should be the final word on who won this thing. The certifying and seating of a senator ought to follow hard on its heels. … Granted, a federal court case is an option for a politician who can tap his national party’s deep pockets. But a federal case, running way into the summer and maybe fall, would amount to putting his legal right — and his party’s interest in delay — ahead of Minnesota’s constitutional right to be represented by two senators.

(A Star Tribune news article today, headlined “State’s high court may not be the last word in recount,” explores Coleman’s federal-court options, but the same experts the Strib quotes have told the Minnesota Independent the contest is most likely to end at the state’s high court.)

Newsweek rejects the assertion by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas and National Republican Senatorial Committee chair) that Democrats now urging Coleman to quit are hypocrites in view of Al Gore’s legal efforts after the 2000 presidential election. Labeling the two cases “apples and oranges,” Newsweek notes that Minnesota’s fight is over a lesser seat but has dragged on longer and adds “don’t expect the Supreme Court to step in this time.”

The last word from the weekend goes to the off-the-wall, satirical blog Political Championship Wrestling, which early on perceived the Coleman-Franken fight as a no-holds-barred grudge match. In PCW’s alternative universe, real-life politicians battle like professional wrestlers, dealing out bodyslams and wielding folding chairs. In a new installment, Minnesota’s Senate election rivals “celebrate being named the best feud of 2008 by restarting it. Franken and Coleman brawled at the podium mere seconds after being presented with the awards.”

MATCH #2 NORM COLEMAN (American Patriots) vs. AL FRANKEN (Progressive Alliance)
Franken is fired up. Coleman sidesteps the initial charge and wastes no time attacking Franken’s bad leg. … Franken flails on him. He pulls Coleman up by the hair and throws him through the ropes outside. Coleman topples out of the ring and onto the floor. Franken on the edge of the ring. Flying elbow. Coleman’s legs jerk up at impact and then slam back down. Franken again pulls Coleman up by the hair. Blatant choke. The referee tries to get in the middle but Franken isn’t letting go. Franken gets a chair. *CLANG* He takes out the referee. *CLANG* Down goes Coleman. … Cookie sheet is next. *WHACK* The cookie sheet is bent at a ninety degree angle after Franken uses it. …AND HERE COMES TIM PAWLENTY!” Pawlenty runs down and swipes the chair from Franken. *CLANG* Franken staggers backwards. Mark Ritchie makes a run at Pawlenty. *CLANG* And falls backward as well. Franken gets up and charges again. *CLANG* Franken pirouettes and then collapses. …

Read the complete (and completely deranged) action here.

Franken nails Coleman with a road sign. He next pulls out a cheese grater and rubs it across Coleman’s forehead. Suave: “CHEESE GRATER! CHEESE GRATER! COLEMAN IS BADLY BUSTED OPEN!” Franken pulls a ladder from underneath the ring and clock Coleman with it. Franken grabs a garbage can and drops toe holds Coleman onto it. Cover. Two count. Coleman staggers back up and Franken knocks him right back out with a steel chair. Crowd: “HOLY S@#$#… HOLY S@#$#.” Franken puts Coleman on top of the ladder and climbs up on the corner turnbuckle. Franken leaps off the turnbuckle and crushes Coleman on the metal ladder. Crowd: “HOLY S@#$#… HOLY S@#$#.” Franken covers. 1…2…3.

New blow-by-blow reportage today has Norm and Al brawling in the parking lot afterward, with the promise of a grudge rematch set for Nov. 25. And you missed the three-way action involving former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley that ramped up when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and SNLster Tina Fey joined the fray.

You could call the writing wrestler porn, but that four-letter word’s already tapped out in this race. The scribes at Political Championship Wrestling prefer to call it PHEW!: Political Hardcore Extreme Wrestling. To get all elitist-high brow on their asses, it reads a bit like an opera libretto that got shredded together with a Wolf Blitzer transcript.