Rand Paul had his 13 hours of filibuster fame last week, but itâs his Senate colleague Ted Cruz whoâs really giving the middle finger to that whole idea of upper-chamber comity and decorum. Just a couple of months in, the Texas freshman has made clear his commitment to raising as much hell and as many eyebrows as possibleâmuch to the delight of the Tea Party anti-establishment conservatives who brung him to the dance.

Among Cruzâs buzzier moves was to get so ornery at Chuck Hagelâs confirmation hearingsâeven floating the question of whether Obamaâs choice to head the Pentagon might have pocketed money from the North Korean governmentâthat he was publicly spanked by fellow Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Then thereâs Cruzâs assertion that, during his days at Harvard Law, there were at least a dozen Commies on the faculty. (This earned him a shoutout by Obama this weekend during the POTUSâs speech to the press elite of the Gridiron Club: âI can offer you an easy way of remembering the new team. If Ted Cruz calls somebody a communist, then you know theyâre in my cabinet.â)
More generally, the new senator reportedly just canât stop running his mouth in meetings, leading to much anonymous grumbling by colleagues. As one Republican member huffed to Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus, Cruz is âJim DeMint without the charm.â
Such feistiness has prompted a wave of media marveling over Cruzâs clash with his partyâs establishment. âEstablishment attacks only make Cruz more popular with supporters,â read a recent headline on CNN.com. Or this cheeky bit from The Atlantic Wire: âSenate reaches rare bipartisan agreement on Ted Cruz.â (Not in a good way.) Meanwhile, the conservative blogosphere has gone gaga over Cruzâs sticking it to âthe establishment.â At last! A true revolutionary who will not be cowed by the Beltway sell-outs.
All of which strikes some Republicans as downright hilarious considering that Cruz arguably is one of the most elite, establishment pols around: a double Ivy Leaguer who worked his way up through the party ranks, amassing a GOP pedigree so impeccable he could very well be a missing Bush brother.
âHis party credentials are unassailable,â says veteran GOP strategist Ralph Reed. âHe clerked for Rehnquist, worked on the 2000 Bush campaign, and served as solicitor general of Texas in the state attorneyâs office. Heâs not some bomb thrower who came out of left field.â
Reedâs rundown of Cruzâs golden CV is far from complete. Cruz did his undergrad time at Princeton, and followed it up with Harvard Law, where he edited the storied Harvard Law Review. As for his political bona fides, Cruzâs labors during Bush-Cheney 2000âincluding legal work on the Florida recountâwon him Bush-administration postings first at the Federal Trade Commission (head of Policy Planning), then the Justice Department (associate deputy AG). Heck, even Cruzâs wife, Heidi (the two met on the campaign), is establishment: an investment banker by trade, she did turns on the National Security Council under Condi Rice, as head of the Latin American office at Treasury, and as an assistant to thenâU.S. trade rep Robert Zoellick. She now runs Goldman Sachsâ southwest investment management division. Thatâs right: the Tea Party darlingâs darlinâ is a big-time investment banker. Is this a great country or what?
It was, of course, Cruzâs Senate primary victory over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst that changed his persona from insider to outsider. While the party establishment lined up behind Dewhurst, a whoâs who of Tea Party types backed Cruz: Erick Erickson, Mark Levin, Sarah Palin, Pat Toomey, Jim DeMint, FreedomWorks, the Tea Party ExpressâŚ
(Worth noting: Even on Cruzâs outsiderish run, there were insiderish elements to be found. Reagan royalty Ed Meese served as chairman of the campaign, and Cruz was endorsed by the premier member of the Bush dynastyâs new generation, George P.)
When the smoke cleared, Cruz stood as a Tea Partyâesque giant killer in an otherwise disappointing cycle. âHe had the good fortuneâwhich he created himselfâof defeating a powerful presumed frontrunner, and he did it from the right which gave him Tea Party cred,â observes former Bushie Ari Fleischer, who worked on the 2000 campaign with Cruz.
âThat really matters to the Tea Party crowd,â agrees Reed. âWere you willing to take on your own party in a very difficult race because you had things you deeply cared about in terms of issues that you wanted to get in there and fight for?â
Of course, adds Reed, to keep that street cred, a winning pol has to follow through with the fight. Cruzâs feather-ruffling persona certainly comes in handy in this department. âAs much as he has a beautiful pedigree, he does cut the cloth of an outsider,â says Fleischer. In politics, adds Fleischer, style matters, and Cruz has it. âItâs the body language. Itâs the muscle. Itâs the outsider aura.â
âI wouldnât have guessed that Ted was going to be the outsider, change-Washington, sharp-elbows guy when I worked with him on the Bush campaign,â says Fleischer. âBut everybody gets to have a white board and define themselves the first time they run.â
For many Republicans, Cruzâs insider core wrapped in an outsider mantle promises great things.
âTed is the real deal,â asserts Fleischer.
âHeâs running,â chuckles Reed. âAnd Iâm not talking about for governor.â