People who talk out of both sides of their mouth like Collins, McCain, Romney, Lee, Murkowski, etc. will always be vilified by both sides in public even if they are praised by the other side they play for in private.
While it appears to be a good thing when someone defects from the dem party by switching to the pubbie party; can they ever truly be trusted? That works both ways.
All the 17th. Amendment managed to do was to place this country under the near-total control of our 100 biggest egomaniacs.