He got desperate and that's how many people act when they get desperate. If he had any chance of winning before, he lost it with this.
But some people had contempt for him long before this, and that wasn't really merited. 36 years in the Senate and he was far from the worst one in there.
It was also not the point being debated.
I am sure that on any given issue he probably voted the way I wanted him to more than 50% of the time, However, I never recall having seen him discuss anything on a talk show that would put him in the bad graces of the leftist media. He, like so many of these RINOs, play to the Washington insider crowd. That is what makes this so sweat to see him go. Maybe a few other Senators will realize that the TEA party is gonna chop them off at the knees before the lefty media is. They can now spend some time and ponder whether they want to pander to the "adult" crowd in Washington and get nice write ups in Time magazine or whether they want their seat.