It IS a late minute desparation move on the part of the rats. Remember that the Torch was given the job of responding the President's radio address a few days ago. Why would they do that if they were planning on dumping him today?
The Senate is decaying under the weight of its enormous honor and importance, and $$rich$$ in tradition, perqs, and other sublime satisfactions. This has been planned for a long time, when the Senate found itself unable to keep from having an "investigation," and when daschle's boys knew they had to dump him, they gave him stuff like the radio address to round out his esteemed* career in the public arena, to help pave his way out of the Senate and into the general milling of the Great Unwashed Masses, and to make the fact of his departure seem to be occurring with the good will of the Senate.
This departure deal, and its timing, were the unwritten part of the Senate "Ethics" Committee's "strongly-worded" displeasure of Torricelli. I cite no news sources other than the history of the dems.
* Being elected to the Senate equals an esteemed career to the dems, regardless of how well or ill the public service was rendered, or in how many tills the electee was found to have planted his hands.