Minutes after President Barack Obama was sworn in, the Minnesota courts administrator posted another legal document in the U.S. Senate recount.

The motion, formally filed last Friday with the three-judge election contest panel but released this afternoon, says that the five-phase process that Coleman has been seeking should be rejected.

Go here and then to the bottom of the page to see “Al Franken’s response.”

In some ways, things are moving so fast in the pre-trial maneuverings that this Franken response is a bit of ancient history.
Last week, Coleman’s lawyers said they believed there should be a handful of components to the upcoming trial, moving first to the absentee ballots, then alleged duplicate ballots, some missing ballots, some voter-intent challenges and, finally, dangling issues.

On Monday, the Coleman side – in a news briefing – seemed to amend its position by seeking a re-examination and virtual do-over of all previously rejected 12,000 absentee ballots.

It triggered a reaction from Franken spokesman Andy Barr and a subsequent response from Coleman spokesman Mark Drake.

What Franken’s Minneapolis-based lawyer David Lillehaug argues in today’s posting – in response to last week’s version of the Coleman suggested rules - is that Coleman’s side is seeking a “far flung re-re-inspection of ballots in the hopes of finding error where none has been identified.”

Yes, a re-re-inspection.

That additional review of votes comes “after the new Senate has started business” and opens the door to further debate, Lillehaug wrote, returning to the Franken theme that Minnesota is losing out with just one senator in place.

As the Franken side has repeated in the past, the Coleman side hasn’t produced – yet – evidence to prove that duplicate ballots exist. Besides, rules already have been established by the Minnesota Supreme Court on the absentee ballot issue.

Finally, Lillehaug writes, Coleman’s attempt to extend the recount and the trial is “plainly designed to ‘game’ an administrative ‘re-recount’ in an elaborate after-the-fact effort to change the result.”

New president, new Congress, same recount.