COLEMAN: And I told him it's the best job that he'll ever had, representing the people of the state of Minnesota in the United States Senate.

Ours is a government of laws, not men and women. And the Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken. I respects (sic) its decision and I will abide by its results.

It's time for Minnesotans to come together under the leaders it has chosen and move forward. And I join all Minnesotans in congratulating our newest United States senator, Al Franken.

Just a few words about my legal challenge. Sure, I wanted to win, not just for myself, but for my wonderful supporters who have worked so hard. So many have worked so hard and prayed so hard and put so much into this effort. And for the important values that I've always fought for.

I also thought it was important to stand up for enfranchising thousands of Minnesotans whose votes weren't counted like others were. After all, issues and politicians come and go, but voting is fundamental. It is the essence of democracy. I knew we needed to do everything we could to get it right.

I am forever grateful and humbled by the people of Minnesota have given me the honor to represent them, and even more grateful for the wisdom, the courage, the patience and understanding over these past several months.

The path that I take in the future is not nearly as important today as the path that we must now all travel on together to strengthen our state and our nation. These are challenging times, really the most challenging times that I've experienced or witnessed in my over 32 years of public service.

I have never believed that my service is irreplaceable. We have reached the point where further litigation damages the unity of our state, which is also fundamental. In these tough times we all need to focus on the future, and the future today is that we have a new United States senator.

I congratulate Al Franken in his victory in this election. He now enjoys the advantage that our congressional delegation has over the other 525 people on Capitol Hill: He represents Minnesota. I know the great ideas, the amazing work ethic and the historic ability to come together to get things done in this state will help him greatly as it has me.

Speaking of which, I think we should all take a moment to thank Senator Amy Klobuchar for the incredible work, and her staff -- and her staff. They have done a great job the last six months carrying the burden of two United States senators. She is an extraordinary public servant.

I don't reach this point with any big regrets. I ran the campaign I wanted.

COLEMAN: I conducted the legal challenge I wanted. I've always believed you do the best you can, and you leave the results up to a higher authority. I'm at peace with that. As for my future plans, that's a subject for another day.

We live in a great country and a great state. We can all have confidence that by some path we don't know yet, one which we can all come together to lay out, we will arrive at the better future that we all seek.

Thank you. And may God bless Minnesota and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

QUESTION: Senator, this obviously means we're ruling out any more appeals. This is done.

COLEMAN: I have congratulated Al Franken. This will -- the election of November -- that was a long time ago -- 2008 is over, and we should all work together to support our new United States senator.

QUESTION: Senator, what went into your decision to step away from more legal battles? Was it money? Was it -- was it the anguish, the stress of it? What was it exactly that you considered before making this decision?

COLEMAN: That we'd just been through a long process. I wanted a chance to raise the issues that we thought had to be raised, to enfranchise a lot of folks whose votes hadn't been counted. We had a chance to do that. And we went to the highest court in this state.

And so, I think the issues have been heard. You know, even the equal protection argument, this was the first court that fully considered it. They considered it, and they rejected our argument.

And at this point in time -- it's always been a balance. We've talked about that before -- ensuring that voters have their votes counted and at the same time understanding the challenge that Minnesota faces by just having one United States senator.

And so, as you kind of weigh out that balance, we've reached a point where it's now time to come together, to put past beef behind us, to move forward, and that's the point that I'm at.

QUESTION: Do you still think there are votes uncounted that would have elected you?

COLEMAN: From the very beginning, if I didn't believe that, we wouldn't have processed the appeal. But the bottom line is that's -- that's history. I'm not looking back. I'm not, you know, questioning what's counted, what's not counted.

The Supreme Court of Minnesota has decided. As I began, we are a nation of laws, not men and women, and the court has spoken. And as a result, I think it's time to look forward and not look back.

QUESTION: Prescriptively, Senator, anything that you think the state should do different with regards to the election so that this does not happen in the future?

COLEMAN: Oh, I think we've learned a lot about the nature of the absentee ballot process that we never looked at before because it had never been this close.

I anticipate that -- and I would certainly be part of the discussion to make sure that we have a more uniform process in how ballots are counted.

So I think we've learned -- you always -- you learn from your mistakes. You learn from your challenges. And so this has been unheralded, unprecedented. And Minnesotans are good at learning and fixing and then moving forward.

QUESTION: Can you describe your conversation with Mr. Franken?

COLEMAN: (inaudible) very, very, you know, positive. And I told him it's the best job you'll ever have. I've had some good jobs in my...

(LAUGHTER)

... in my 32 years of public service.

QUESTION: What did he say to you?

COLEMAN: He said it was -- it couldn't have been any closer. He understands -- you know, he says he knows what -- what he and his family have gone through and he can imagine what me and my family have gone through.

So it was a very personal discussion, a very positive discussion. And as I said, I called to congratulate him and wished him the best. And he responded in kind.

QUESTION: Now that it's clear that you won't win this race, are you considering running for governor?

COLEMAN: I'm considering whether I can catch -- do a better job of catching fish in the next couple of days...

(LAUGHTER)

... than I did this weekend, by the way. I did a lot of -- lot of fishing and very little catching.

I haven't made a decision yet about the future. And so let's address the future another day. I want to address today, put closure on this election, the longest election in Minnesota history, and to move forward.

COLEMAN: And we'll talk about the future in short order.

QUESTION: What would you say your state of mind is?

COLEMAN: At peace. At peace. I have to tell you, you know, my wife's faith, the Catholic faith, and, you know, she was there praying the rosary. And there's a, in the New Testament, in Philippians there's a section to be anxious about nothing, prayer and supplication, put your faith in God.

I'm in the Jewish faith, and God has a plan. I believe that. And so you do the best you can.

So I'm really at peace. This is a long, drawn -- and maybe, by the way, the length of time that we had has kind of offered that opportunity. It may be tougher to lose on election night, you know. You're tired, you got all that energy and the adrenaline, and your folks around you. And here I've had a lot of time to process this election, to -- to -- to think about the past and to look to the future.

And so I really have a sense of peace with -- with where things are at, and it is time now to move forward.

QUESTION: Senator, did anything in the ruling surprise you today?

COLEMAN: Oh, the ruling surprised me. I thought -- I thought we had a better case.

(LAUGHTER)

But the court has spoken, and having spoken, I think it's time to abide by the ruling and to move forward.

QUESTION: How do you weigh sticking up of the disenfranchised voters versus the fact that Minnesota for about eight months only had one U.S. senator?

COLEMAN: That's the balance. That's why I say now let's move forward.

Do I -- you know, was I firm in my belief it was the right thing to do to try to count those votes? Absolutely. Are they still not counted? No, they're not.

But on the other hand the balance is Minnesota's been without a senator, and I think it's important now to move forward.

So I think that's always -- that was always kind of the calculation, the kind of weighing, how do you go forward, what's the cost to Minnesota...

(AUDIO GAP)

COLEMAN: ... always been there. But I felt -- I felt very comfortable and very confident, by the way, about our appeal. So at this point in time the decision has been reached. Let's move forward.

QUESTION: What kind of senator do you think Al Franken will be?

COLEMAN: I hope he'll be a senator in Minnesota tradition, which is we've had great senators. You know, he's going to have to choose the things that he's going to get involved in and the way he's going to do his job.

COLEMAN: The good news about Franken is he's got Amy Klobuchar by his side. And, again, I want to -- I want to thank Amy for her efforts. She had a tough job these last number of months, and she -- I think her and her staff did extraordinarily well. I know how much work it takes.

I would say this, I hope -- and I want to be careful about offering advice, but so often we think about the job of U.S. senator as standing on the floor of the Senate and debating the great issues of the day. A lot of what I thought is important -- I know Amy feels this say, and I think Mr. Franken will see the same thing -- is the customer service aspect, the citizen service aspect. I always describe public service as being in the customer service business.

And so, you know, it may be there are important issues to discuss and there will be great debates to be had, but, you know, helping that mom get her kid in Guatemala or, in one case, in the middle of a war zone in Haiti, is a pretty big deal -- helping somebody with their Social Security, helping a veteran with some benefits, helping a small business person navigate through challenges with the IRS.

So I can't -- my hope would be that he understands, as I understood in my public career, that the customer service part is really pretty fundamental. We're in the business of taking care of people's problems and meeting their needs, along with a lot of other things.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Do you believe that Franken received the highest number of legally cast votes?

(CROSSTALK)

COLEMAN: I believe that -- I believe -- I believe that the Supreme Court of Minnesota has spoken, that we have a United States senator, and it's time to move forward and not worry about the issues that were debated in the past.

QUESTION: Did you feel any -- did you feel any personal responsibility to hold back the tide of the 60-vote margin for Democrats? And have you had any conversation since the ruling came out with anybody at the National Republican...

(CROSSTALK) COLEMAN: I haven't talked to anybody at the national level. And I -- I never felt that responsibility. In the end, you know, he'll have to make judgments that he'd make; other senators will make judgments that they make. And 60 is a magic number, but not everyone always votes in lockstep.

So I -- you know, the pundits always had a lot of discussion about that. I never felt any pressure about that.

What I felt was a commitment to getting it right. What I felt was a strong sense that it was fundamentally important that every vote be counted. And I felt it was important to pursue that as far as we could. And we have. And the highest court in this state has issued an opinion.

But I never really worried about, you know, 60 votes or 59 votes.

COLEMAN: You know, the national pundits talked about that.

QUESTION: But that's (inaudible) 60 votes. And also, what does that mean for the Senate (inaudible) with him in there and not you?

COLEMAN: I -- you know, we'll have to see. I'll have to see. I...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

COLEMAN: I mean, we'll -- again, we will have to see. It's other senators. You know, Senator Specter was a Republican. He's a Democrat. But even as a Republican, he never was voting with our side.

So I think a lot of folks are putting a lot into this 60 number. When it comes to the big issues, I -- you know, there are -- a lot of Democrats don't always vote with the Democrat party line, and there are some Republicans who don't always vote with the Republican party line. So it may not be as big an issue as some pundits think.

QUESTION: Senator, the (inaudible) have both filed (inaudible) requests to try to get all the votes in open ballot opened and counted, preserving privacy, kind of, a "what if" scenario (inaudible)

Do you support that action?

COLEMAN: I presume that others are going to be talking about this election past, and for some, maybe in the future. For me, I'm focused on, right now, saying that we have a senator, and I congratulated that senator.

I'm not looking forward to more discussion about this election. I -- listen, you know, for the media, this election has been a godsend, you know.

(LAUGHTER)

At a time, certainly, when the fourth estate is, kind of, worried about their economic future, this has been a full employment act for the media.

(LAUGHTER)

And if there's some more juice to be gotten out of what happened and who got all the votes, let that play itself out. But I'm -- whatever I can do to be a unifying force now, that's what I'm going to do.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Senator, your legacy -- your legacy, things you are proud of in the Senate, things you'd like to look back, your accomplishments?

COLEMAN: Well, I start with the stuff that doesn't get the most publicity, and that is the people-to-people work that we did. And there is nothing more gratifying than, as I was sitting in a restaurant on Selby Avenue, La Grolla, a couple of weeks ago, and a family's celebrating and a woman comes over showing me the picture of her little baby and says, Senator, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have my baby, and we're celebrating today.

It is the people things. You know, on the policy issues, certainly the work that we did in the United Nations oversight; the work -- working with our farmers and producers.

COLEMAN: On energy, I've been a voice of energy independence and renewables for a long time, and I'm going to continue to be involved in those discussions.

I have been blessed to represent the people in the greatest state in the nation. I think the smartest folks in the nation. There's a lot of great ideas. My best ideas didn't come from me sitting behind a desk in Washington, they came from some farmer in Willmar who had an idea about, you know, what we could do for renewables. They come from the people.

So I'm proud of my service, proud of 13 years of public service, and I'm here today to offer my congratulations to Al Franken.

QUESTION: When do you estimate you might have some announcement on your future? When?

COLEMAN: Soon. Yes. You know, so I presume sometime -- we'll get through July 4th -- sometimes next week I presume I'll be talking a little bit about what the future is.

You got the last -- you got the last question.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: (inaudible) to Governor Pawlenty and given his -- your blessing to (inaudible) signature he has to provide?

COLEMAN: I did talk to the governor and let him know that I was coming out here to make his life a little easier.

(LAUGHTER)

And to say that he was going to do what the court said anyway.

But I think for all Minnesotans this is a time now to look forward, to seize the opportunity that we have. We got two U.S. senators in a challenging time. And let's all work together for a brighter future.

Thank you all, and God bless. Thank you.