WaPo & Specter

Washington Post runs an article today titled "Party Switch Costs Specter his Seniority on Senate Committees" by noting that Specter had been promised by Reid that he'd keep his seniority, but when it came down to a vote, he was actually given junior standing on several committees. From reading this article, you'd have no idea why the Democrats might possibly have stripped Specter of seniority, indeed, you'd probably think that they'd lied in in order to get Specter to switch. But we do get this "analysis":

Meanwhile, Specter backtracked yesterday from comments he made to the New York Times Magazine in an interview to be published Sunday. He had joked about how Norm Coleman of Minnesota could possibly win his legal contest and reclaim his Senate seat, ensuring that there would still be at least one Jewish Republican in the chamber.

Hmmm, joked? His quote implied that a Franken victory would be an injustice. Not really sure where the humor is in that. Now, I doubt that Specter's quote about wanting Coleman to win was the sole or even primary reason for stripping Specter of his seniority -- rather, I imagine that a lot of Senate Democrats did not want to stand in line behind someone who is only nominally committed to progressive legislation. But bad reporting by the Washington Post.