In my last piece, I noted that Senate Democrats lack the votes to get Al Franken seated before the end of the court case, and that team Franken's efforts to get the Supreme Court to order the governor and secretary of state to sign a certificate of election seems like a longshot. But I just learned of another effort to get Franken seated, provisionally, while the court case continues.

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, introduced a bill yesterday (House File 493) that, if it were now the law, would put Franken in the Senate temporarily, pending the outcome of the court contest. And, she just told me, the new arrangement would apply to any cases that are pending when the bill becomes law.

The bill says that, in a case that proceeds from the administrative recount to the election contest phase (in other words, the current case),  the governor and secretary of state must issue a temporary certificate of election (the lack of such a certificate is the main argument Republicans are using to block Franken from being seated) to the candidate who is ahead at the end of the state Canvassing Board recount (in other words, to Franken) that would enable him to be seated in the Senate while the election contest proceeds in court.

State Sen. Ann Rest of New Hope, chairman of the State and Local Government Committee, which has jurisdiction over election law matters, has agreed to sponsor the bill in the Senate.

The soonest the bill could pass would be about two weeks, Kahn said. The language says that it takes effect on the day after it becomes law and that the new arrangement "applies to any election contest pending on or after that date." Kahn is making no bones about the fact that it is intended, in addition to changing the arrangement for future similar cases, to get Franken certified and seated. But the bill makes clear that if the person who is trailing at the end of the recount (in this case, Norm Coleman) prevails in the election contest, the temporary certificate expires and a new one is issued to the final winner.

This way, Kahn argued, "the pressure that the court might feel to move quickly, rather to deal with matters correctly, will be relieved." The courts can take the time to get the final result right without worrying that Minnesota is underrepresented or that Minnesotans need constituent services are underserved.

I don't doubt that the bill will be greeted by the DFL majorities in both houses. I'm skeptical that Gov. Pawlenty would sign it.

Pawlenty and Coleman are not exactly soulmates, but they are both Republicans. Republicans, locally and nationally, will scream bloody murder if the bill passes and might form a lynch mob if it is signed into law by one of their own.

Kahn said she had hoped to talk to the governor about it today but the meeting at which she hoped to catch his ear was postponed. She knows Pawlenty "might veto it." But as the contest drags on, as the feeling grows that Minnesota should have two senators, if Pawlenty agrees with her that this arrangement would be best in future cases, he might decide to sign the bill.

Color me skeptical.

What think?