[Michael Barnes]

Them tea leaves he's been reading and smoking told him to get ahead of the curve of this crushing defeat.
Mathews (the little whore shill he is) cannot afford (literally) to toe the "party line" anymore. He'll be out of a job and he knows it.

[DannyTN]

"Mathews (the little whore shill he is) cannot afford (literally) to toe the "party line" anymore. He'll be out of a job and he knows it. "

I think that's it exactly. And he waited until the night before the election before announcing his conversion.