Paul also staged a filibuster earlier this year, but to better effect. Though some called his concerns about the use of drones against Americans overblown, the senator ultimately received an assurance from the White House that U.S. citizens would not be targeted in the homeland.

Paul mostly kept his head down during the budget battles. While he blasted Democrats over the barricades that were set up around the World War II memorial, Paul skipped a related rally featuring former Gov. Sarah Palin, Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

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reset Assessing shutdown damage

The senator also called for a bipartisan coffee klatsche on the Capitol steps to dial down the temperature on the Hill. It drew only one Democrat, but Paul earned plaudits nonetheless.

“All I can say is, we started this thing trying to defund Obamacare,” Graham said minutes before the Senate voted to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday. Instead, “We made it more popular. We’re down to margin of error as a party. And Rand Paul is having a tea party with Democrats. So who woulda thought all that?”

As for Cruz, Graham said, “Well, Ted is a passionate guy. At the end of the day you’re gonna be judged by your ability to create a good idea and sell it.”

“Sen. Cruz [was] opposed to a shutdown,” said Catherine Frazier, his spokeswoman. “He did not think it had to get to that point. This all comes down to, the last three years Republicans have been talking about how to take down Obamacare. This was our chance to do it on the [continuing resolution]. It required unity of Republicans fighting on the issue. We achieved that with the House … unfortunately the Senate did not unite. That’s why we got the lousy deal we did yesterday.”

On Tuesday, a day before the Senate’s vote, Paul breezed past a pack of reporters in the Capitol on the way to a GOP lunch, declining to weigh in.

“I’m not gonna make any comment right now,” he said as he walked by.

Both Paul and Cruz are considered top possible 2016 contenders — and the dynamic that played out over the last several weeks could come up again in a primary.

“It’s a real contrast in style, especially if you’re looking at a national campaign that’s more marathon than sprint,” the GOP strategist said. “I think Cruz is playing the short-term game to get short-term gains, whereas Paul is looking down field for the long play.”

Rich Killion, a New Hampshire Republican strategist, said shutdown politics could serve as one of many points of argument between Paul and Cruz in 2016, though he noted that much can change between now and a potential primary contest.

“Given that [Paul] isn’t owning any of the pain of the shutdown, yeah, I think it’s something that is going to benefit him,” Killion said.

Paul’s office declined to comment.

“The real difference [in this battle] isn’t between [Republicans in name only] and the establishment,” said GOP strategist Rick Wilson. “It’s between people who get how politics really works and people who want politics to work the way they want it to work.”

Last week at the Values Voter Summit, a gathering of the country’s most conservative grassroots activists, Lee and Cruz railed against the health care law and urged Republicans to stand strong as the government shutdown continued. Paul spent his stage time talking foreign policy.

“I think you could probably infer that a guy like Rand Paul, who saw his father’s various failed presidential efforts, [recognizes] that it’s going to require more than soaring rhetoric,” Wilson said. He added, “Folks like [Paul] have a recognition that just being true to your conservative principles is not the same thing as being true to conservative principles with a strategic plan, approach and a path to victory.”