wow, i'm a fan of tim and want ed to go as much as the next guy, but I saw that completely differently.
first, sure, ed was a bit childish to get up in arms about tim's name calling, but tim did decide to go with the personal insult.
but second, tim picked the fight. sure, it was probably calculated, but he has to wear that for starting it.
then, third, tim throws out "you hurt my feelings, that's why i called you an idiot" - ok, look, who's the pussy? i mean, yeah, tim only said that because he had no ground to stand on with his personal insult, so he tried to play victim. ed should have called him on it - and it's a shame he didn't. but that doesn't relieve time of playing the victim
which, fourth, he tries to take back later with "you don't intimidate me" - yeah, right, that's why you had that little tanty earlier and called him an idiot?
no, it's very clear ed does get under tim's skin, and tim is losing his self-control about it. sure, he's winning some childish arguments, but he's coming out of it looking like a petulant child himself - and that can't be good for fence-sitting voters.
bottom line is, even if you like tim, you have to see that he's breaking a key rule (tim brunero's rules) of winning big brother - if you start a fight, you have to end it magnanimously.
the fact that tim couldn't shows that ed has his number - even if ed is too lame to do anything with it.