Sen. Arlen Specter (PA-D) claimed on Tuesday at the AFL-CIO’s conference in Pittsburgh to have “pounded out an Employees Choice bill which will meet labor’s objectives.”  Apparently, someone forgot to tell the Senate.

Democratic Senators spent an awkward day Wednesday walking back from Specter’s statements. One senator stated that there have been no formal talks since July. Several claimed it was the first they’d heard of it, but they reassured reporters they wanted to “finish what [they’ve] started.” It was clear that Specter spoke out of turn on a bill for which he himself has been a controversy. And even if a compromise is reached, there are only 59 Democratics in the Senate — not enough to break a filibuster.

Specter may have spoke too soon, and his checkered past on EFCA may come back to haunt him.

Read more in The Hill, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.