Cruz came to Washington in 2012, and his impressive and fearless campaign to jam it up ever since has helped the senator from Texas make a name for himself as the obstructor in chief. His willingness to do so -- sometimes for no discernible benefit than his own political gain -- also has made him a very difficult person for the rest of Congress to like.

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It's difficult to see how that thorny relationship suddenly changes to a "productive and positive" one, like he promised Monday in a town hall meeting with ABC's "Good Morning America" once he gets a different job.

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But Cruz certainly has reason to change his tune. He might want to soften his reputation as an obstructionist because he's suddenly becoming the establishment candidate in the GOP race. He'll need some way to explain why D.C. is suddenly endorsing him, plus he might need those folks to win the White House.

It'd be a remarkable change of pace, given that Cruz is no stranger to earning Congress's ire -- from both sides of the aisle. And often, he has done it for no other reason than to make a political point -- coming across as petty and ambitious to his colleagues in the process.

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Here's his highlight reel these past three years in Washington (more details here):

In 2013, Cruz seized the Senate floor for 21 hours to launch a full-scale attack against President Obama's health-care reform law, Obamacare. He promised to speak against the law "until I am no longer able to stand." When he finally did sit, the government shut down for two weeks, polls showed Americans blamed Republicans for it, and Obamacare stayed funded. At the time, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) called it "the dumbest idea I've ever heard." Many Republicans went along with the gambit, but largely because Cruz forced them to toe the line for fear of upsetting the GOP base.

In 2014, Cruz wanted to stop Obama's executive actions on immigration from going forward. But this time, he kept his plan to do so secret, explicitly avoiding a chance to share it with his Republican colleagues. That Friday, the Senate headed home thinking a $1 trillion spending deal was all but a done deal. But then Cruz appeared on the Senate floor to make an 11th-hour grandstand against Obama's immigration actions, effectively threatening the larger $1 trillion deal. Senators on their way home for the weekend had to turn around and spend all day Saturday in negotiations. Then-Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) used the unexpected opportunity to power through some of Obama's judicial nominations. The spending bill passed anyway. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said the surprise move “shows a level of disrespect for your colleagues." Added Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah): "I don’t see an end goal other than just irritating a lot of people."

In 2015, Cruz called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a "liar" on the Senate floor over a debate on the Export-Import Bank . It was a shocking breach of decorum in the traditionally stuffy Senate.

At the end of 2015, Cruz was ranked one of the least bipartisan senators in recent decades by the nonpartisan Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Through all the public bashing of his name and agenda, Cruz celebrated. He carefully crafted the record above to help him get this far in the presidential contest. Cruz is running for president in a year that has been dominated by outsiders -- or at least those framing themselves as outsiders -- and he's proven to be one of the few Washington politicians who can keep up with Donald Trump's appeal to the GOP base.

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Cruz rightly realizes that this reputation is beneficial only up to a certain point in the primary campaign. Lately, Cruz has taken hits from Trump for being so unpopular in the Senate.

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"I got along with everybody. You get along with nobody," Trump said to Cruz in a February debate. "You don't have one Republican senator ... backing you -- not one. You don't have the endorsement of one." (Update: Cruz now has three endorsements in the Senate, although two of those -- Sens. Jim Risch (Idaho) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) -- have announced their backing while holding their noses.)

Today, we're also living in an alternate universe in which Cruz is the Republican establishment candidate. None other than Jeb Bush has endorsed him, and Mitt Romney voted for him in the Utah caucuses. That means Cruz is likely to get more endorsements from D.C. if (or when) it comes down to him and Trump in a contested convention in July.

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It's possible that Cruz has decided to soften his pitch to voters in anticipation of official Washington throwing its weight behind him -- and in anticipation of getting the nomination and needing help to beat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the fall. This is a key stumbling block when it comes to the establishment backing him over Trump: Will Cruz actually be any better? Will he work with them? He's indicating that, yes, he will.

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It's possible we're seeing the beginnings of Cruz trying to reshape his reputation as the guy who has made enemies in Congress to the guy who has stood up to Congress when necessary but can get along fine with them otherwise. On Monday, he even compared himself to Ronald Reagan when explaining why he'd work well with Capitol Hill.

"When you've got a strong conservative president driving an agenda, Congress will work hand in hand -- just like Ronald Reagan did," he said.