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Well, Kuchel's lineage came from the Johnson/Warren line of the GOP. He was the State Comptroller during the Warren Administration and was appointed Senator by Warren when Richard Nixon became Vice-President. He remained pretty much your typical (of the time) liberal Republican throughout his career, although was still considered trustworthy enough to rise the position of Republican Whip, just as his Conservative colleague Bill Knowland exited the job as GOP Senate leader in 1959.

With the advent of Conservatives rising up in the '60s, even as he Whip, could not save him from a challenge, and he was beaten by colorful Conservative State School Superintendent Max Rafferty in the '68 GOP primary, who had hoped to join fellow Conservative George Murphy in the Senate. A lot of outraged GOP liberals refused to support Rafferty in the fall, enabling ultraliberal Alan Cranston a victory (Cranston, too, had previously served as State Comptroller like Kuchel, though he lost his job in the Reagan landslide of '66). Had Kuchel prevailed in the primary, it's rather likely that Cranston would not have been able to beat him (I'd go so far as to say Kuchel probably would've survived without a primary challenge even past Watergate, and lasted until at least 1980, when he likely would've retired and the open seat presumably would've gone to a Republican instead of a 3rd-term seeking Cranston).

Also noteworthy is that had Kuchel survived Rafferty's primary challenge in '68, and defeated Cranston, he would've succeeded Conservative Everett Dirksen as GOP Senate leader upon his death in late 1969 (as it was, the job went to another Senate GOP liberal, Pennsylvania's Hugh Scott). Part of the reason why many Conservatives wanted Kuchel gone was because as long as he remained, is that he reflected the power of a rather large liberal presence in the Senate GOP.

Two of the highest profile Kuchel Republicans (ones who served as his personal assistants) would later go on to serve in Congress. One was Steve Horn, the rather liberal RINO from Long Beach whose seat was eliminated by the Democrats in '02. The other was a fella named Leon Panetta, who switched to the Democrats, beat a sitting Conservative GOP incumbent in the House, Burt Talcott, in 1976 (the last Republican to represent coastal Monterey County in Congress to date), and, of course, would go on to greater infamy as a Clintonista.

Well, that's my take (mostly off the top of my head).