Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had a nice conversation with a donor last week about the possibility of a leadership challenge from former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman. Except: The "donor" was a conservative blogger. Who published the whole conversation.

Norm Coleman will not campaign for governor of Minnesota, because his family opposes a run. But he does plan on challenging the result of that family vote in court, and the appeal is expected to last until at least May.

Robert De Niro turns 66 today. Sean Penn is turning 49. Controversial book publisher Judith Regan is 56. Yankees star Jorge Posada is turning 38. J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison are both turning 65 today. John McDonald, the restaurateur behind Lure Fishbar, Chinatown Brasserie, and the now-closed Lever House, is 41. Jonathan Franzen, the author of The Corrections, is 50. E! host Giuliana DePandi Rancic is 34. Nicola Kraus, the co-author of The Nanny Diaries, is 35. Hollywood exec Gail Berman is turning 53. Singer Belinda Carlisle is 51. Retired tennis player Jim Courier turns 39. Donnie Wahlberg is turning 40. Former Senator Norm Coleman is 60. And Rick Hilton, father of Paris and Nicky, turns 54 today.

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) conceded to former comedian Al Franken (Jew-SNL) today after losing an appeal to Minnesota's Supreme Court in the months-long litigation surrounding their 2008 Senate race. The standoff is over, and democracy is restored to long-suffering Minnesotans.

The Senate race between the loser and the unlikable comedian is still being decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court, but at Hubbard County's 4th of July party, they will race piglets named "Norm Coleman" and "Al Franken."

Late this afternoon a Minnesota court ordered Norm Coleman to pay Al Franken close to $95,000 to compensate Franken for some of the legal costs he's incurred during Coleman's seemingly endless legal battle to win the Senate seat. [TPM]

It was back in late April that we said "oh, come on" to the news that Norm Coleman wanted to begin oral arguments in his state supreme court election appeal "no sooner than mid-May." Mid-May! Hah! Now it is June. And the first day of oral arguments!

So Norm Coleman would like to use campaign funds to pay legal bills in connection with that weird suit-buying oil exec scandal. Did you know that it's very expensive to not respond to media inquiries?

"Norm Coleman today proposed a more leisurely schedule for his election appeal than Al Franken wants, asking that oral arguments in the case be held no sooner than mid-May." [Strib]

Political reporter Adam Nagourney went to Minnesota to explain just what the hell is going on there to New York Times readers. It is a mess.

Al Franken won a key ruling from a three-judge panel in Minnesota, confining the election recount there to 400 absentee ballots and thus probably protecting Franken's 225-vote lead.

John Cornyn will throw a fit if Al Franken is seated before Norm Coleman's exhausted every possible legal recourse. And that could take years! According to Politico! And they never exaggerate!

So Nasser Kazeminy is this rich guy in Minnesota who owns an oil company in Texas. Now a former executive of that company is explaining, in court, how Kazeminy bribed soon-to-be-former Senator Norm Coleman.

Soon-to-be-former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman has some of the best lawyers dirty money can buy. And one of them just basically admitted that his current strategy is "tie this election up in court forever."

Say, whatever happened with that Norm Coleman/Rev. Al Franken thing? Well, Norm's political career is dying the death of a thousand judicial setbacks and yet refusing, oddly, to concede.

The Minnesota GOP noticed that, hey, some Obama appointees were having tax problems. And then they remembered that last year, Al Franken had some tax problem, in California! So they made a YouTube.

Al Franken was just certified the winner of the Minnesota Senate recount! Of course that race will still never ever be decided, Nate Silver be damned.

Opponent Norm Coleman is already promising a challenge, but as of Monday famed senator-impersonator Al Franken will be an official senate-election winner, per a Minnesota election board.

The Minnesota Senate race recount will never, ever end, and everyone in that cold and desolate state has obviously proven to be a complete buffoon. Let's meet one of those buffoons now!

Congratulations to U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, who has overcome his narrow Election Day deficit to claim victory in Minnesota over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. According to Al Franken.