On a day when very little happened in the courtroom in St. Paul, Ben Ginsberg, Norm Coleman’s chief legal spokesman and Republican Party mouthpiece-de-resistance, delivered a major-league quip.

Exactly how Ginsberg comes up with these zingers is the stuff of high poetry, on-message mastery and low partisanship, but, nevertheless …

The court day was done. The Dakota County elections official had droned on all day about absentee ballots. A reporter dozed in the media room. The judges revealed the patience of Job times three.

And here marched Ginsberg to the TV cameras and microphones, legal pad in hand, handwritten talking points prepared, ready to talk as if something significant had occurred in Courtroom 300.

Without missing a beat, he began his news briefing with mischievous political rhetoric: “Hello folks … On the day Senate Democrats proved they could spend trillions without Al Franken (reporters’ laughter) the court here has indicated it will allow in many more ballots …”

It was classic Ginsberg, and the sort of verbal missile shot that makes the legal fight for the Senate seat so intense and the differences between Norm Coleman and Al Franken so clear.