Maybe he was just “taking one for the team”?
oh no, that was Santorum.
Santorum was part of the Senate leadership. His option was to resign that position. That did not seem, at the time, a practical thing to do, because he would have been in the same position where Ron Paul found himself for most of his time in public office, a person who had to be content to getting what scraps fell from the table for his district.