The first half was a pretty heavy on the implied hypocrisy, and in today's ADD world that's about as much as most people will read. I feel that the article aims to associate RP with stereotypical political flip-flopping and pandering. I saw this being passed around on Facebook by some liberal friends calling RP a hypocrite and a friend of special interests. Clearly they took away the message the author intended.
If nothing else, everyone should be able to agree that RP has been consistent and has stuck to his principles over the years. It definitely irks me when I see the media try to spin it otherwise. I'm glad they did eventually represent RP's position in this article, but it definitely took a backseat to the negativity that was implied.