I disagree. They are desperate and have no more idea of how the court will rule than you and I do. They only know one thing: Torricelli is going to lose. That's one of the greatest sins of a Democrat. Almost everything else can fall (well maybe not abortion) to the desire for power. Faced with certain loss, they panicked and instituted this scheme.
Look at how many candidates they had to go through before getting Lautenberg to agree. Does that sound like a party that knows what it's doing? Any why have Torricelli give the Saturday radio address when they were going to dump him two days later. Why not give that address to a candidate who was actually going to run for something?
Nope this is the Hail Mary pass from a party that has run out of options.
I agree with you. Think about it -- what would have been a graceful way to get the Torch off the ballot, and somebody else on? How about Torricelli claiming to be in ill health, and that this mystery disease is keeping him from running again? The Dems would shout down anybody who questioned the illness, and they would get the sympathy vote factor. It seems like it would be much easier politically to get a new candidate on the ballot if Torricelli had said he was in ill health.