How is the Franken campaign responding to the lawsuit from Norm Coleman, contesting the results of the Senate recount, which could bottle this up for months? In a briefing just now with reporters, lead Franken lawyer Marc Elias approached it with a very calm and sober demeanor -- and ridiculed Coleman to no end.

"We are on the precipice, I suppose, of the next phase here," Elias said, "which is where the Coleman campaign takes a very big rock, and pushes it up a very steep hill."

What exactly is Coleman's legal complaint disputing about the recount, you might ask? Everything we've heard before, Elias said, with a couple new twists.

The Coleman campaign's complaint shows that they intend to fight on: the allegations that absentee ballots in 25 selected precincts were counted twice to Franken's benefit; the decision of the state canvassing board to revert to election night totals in a pro-Franken precinct where they lost one of five numbered envelopes, containing 133 ballots; to work to get rejected absentee ballots counted that local officials from around Minnesota, in both blue and red counties, have re-examined and say were properly thrown out; and to contest the inclusion of those 930 absentee ballots that were counted this past weekend -- which their own campaign agreed to have counted under a careful bargain.

Elias did say, though, that there's one thing he hadn't heard before: The Coleman campaign wants to have ballots thrown out in cases where the election officials neglected to properly initial them.

But don't expect Franken to be sworn in by the Senate any time soon. Elias said the decision to seat Franken is constitutionally the prerogative of the Senate -- implying that as a trial lawyer it's beyond his area.

One very important thing to note is that Elias repeatedly referred to Coleman as "former Senator Coleman" -- a reference to Coleman's term having expired this past Saturday -- a rhetorical point we'll probably be hearing more of in the weeks and months that this thing takes.

"But you shouldn't confuse the fact that the courts should remain open to hear those claims, with the question of whether or not those claims have any merit," Elias said. "And in this case, former Senator Coleman's claims don't have any merit."