Yep, he's learned that conservatives will turn on him like a pack of dogs just as fast as liberals will.
I hope you're saying this as a good thing. He needed some comeuppance after this appointment. Bring on a real conservative and let's have a knock down drag out. He's already lost this, politically, so he may as well. There is no freer man than he who has nothing to lose.
I've never thought turning on someone like a pack of dogs was a good thing, no matter who is doing it to whom.