Rand Paul embarrassed Mitch McConnell a few months ago by forcing parts of the PATRIOT Act to expire on the Senate majority leader’s watch. But on Tuesday, McConnell rewarded his fellow Kentuckian by tapping him to help lead the charge to defund Planned Parenthood.

And just this week, Utah Sen. Mike Lee infuriated McConnell with a move seen as undermining the GOP caucus on Obamacare — only to be accommodated on the issue after he apologized.


In the seven months since McConnell has assumed the reins of Senate majority leader, he has faced a cadre of problems stemming from a small group of rabble-rousing conservatives who’ve challenged his tactics and strategy. For the most part, he’s been able to move past those disputes, despite some setbacks — largely because most GOP senators find it in their political interest to have a positive relationship with the man in charge of the chamber’s schedule.

Then there’s Ted Cruz.

Since delivering his blistering floor speech Friday, attacking McConnell in personal terms for “lying” about his deal making, Cruz has grown more alienated within the GOP Conference than ever. The Texas senator has barely spoken a word to McConnell. He most certainly has not buried the hatchet with McConnell — and it’s not clear that he ever will.

And Cruz, running for president largely on a campaign to tap into the conservative base’s fury with the party establishment, is perfectly fine with that.

Asked Tuesday whether he wants McConnell to resign as majority leader, Cruz declined to comment. During a private GOP lunch Tuesday, Cruz didn’t speak up; he also didn’t talk during the Monday night session focused mostly on GOP concerns with Lee, his closest friend in the Senate.

But Cruz has been dripping with contempt for McConnell.

After accusing McConnell repeatedly of lying about his plans to move a bill to revive the Export-Import Bank, Cruz has called McConnell the “so-called” Republican leader and a cog in the “McConnell-Reid” leadership team. He said McConnell is “undermining the liberty of the people” and “expanding” Washington at the expense of taxpayers.

Asked a couple days ago if he’d lost all confidence in McConnell, Cruz responded: “I always retain hope that every senator, Republican or Democrat, will choose to listen to their constituents and honor the commitments that they make.”

The question for Cruz is whether he’ll seek to rebuild any of those alliances if his presidential bid falls short. He’ll have a decision to make right away: Whether to run for reelection to his Senate seat in 2018. And if he does, he’ll have to decide whether to continue his role as a leading conservative provocateur, or try to begin working with colleagues he’s angered during his presidential campaign.

“People grow in this place, as you know,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), suggesting one day he may be able to work with Cruz.

“I was just very, very disappointed,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) of Cruz’s comments.

There is little recourse for McConnell and GOP leaders to punish their colleagues in the middle of a congressional session, other than to deny them votes on the floor. That occurred Sunday when Cruz tried to force changes to Senate procedures to get an Iran-related amendment considered to the highway bill. But in a sign of open defiance, GOP senators refused to let that plan come forward for a vote. The same thing happened when Lee tried to use the same circuitous route to force a vote to defund Planned Parenthood.

Republican leaders feared that employing such arcane tactics could prompt disorder in a body used to its customs and procedures.

“It’s particularly important that the Senate not get bogged down by presidential politics,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who has spoken with Lee and Cruz about their disagreements with leadership in recent days. “Because we’ll never get anything done here if we let that take over. So I think we just move on.”

On Monday night, Lee relented on trying to employ a similar tactic — to change Senate procedures and avoid a filibuster — to pass a repeal of Obamacare by just 51 votes. Instead, he approached McConnell on the floor and asked if the two could issue a joint statement in which they agreed that the budget reconciliation process is the best avenue to pursue an Obamacare repeal vote. They did so Tuesday.

For each of the troublemaking trio, the calculations are different. Lee is running for reelection next year in Utah, where he is seeking to court the business community and party establishment to head off any primary threat. He has sought to maintain his credibility with conservative groups — even as he has declined to go nearly as far as Cruz.

As Cruz has done countless media hits and delivered pointed floor speeches calling out McConnell for “lying” about his plans for the Export-Import Bank, Lee has remained mostly mum on the subject. His only public comment on the matter was a statement last week questioning ‘“that such aggressive tactics were used to resurrect” the export credit agency.

And when news broke Monday that one of his aides, Rachel Bovard, had strategized with conservative activists over whether to punish Republicans for voting against his Obamacare procedural move, Lee personally apologized to McConnell and the GOP Conference. The issue could be litigated again Wednesday when the Senate Steering Committee, which Lee chairs, holds its weekly lunch with GOP senators.

Lee’s spokesman wouldn’t say Tuesday whether Bovard had been reprimanded for asking conservative groups to “score” the vote. But the spokesman said the senator “recognizes the email was out of bounds, he takes this matter very seriously, and is acting accordingly.”

Republicans aligned with the party leadership applauded the move.

“Those of us that work behind the scenes or air our differences maybe less publicly are probably more interested in the team concept,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrives for a news conference after a meeting with Senate Republicans on July 28, 2015 in Washington. | AP Photo

Paul, who sparred with McConnell during this spring’s PATRIOT Act debate, later made amends with the GOP leader on the Senate floor in a private conversation, and the two Kentuckians have been on good terms since. Seeking to reinvigorate his presidential campaign, Paul has pushed hard on defunding Planned Parenthood, a cause celebre on the right. And McConnell is letting Paul, Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) take a lead on that effort.

“You get more with honey than you get with vinegar,” Paul said in a recent interview.

Yet Cruz has clearly made a different calculation. Seeking to stoke voter antipathy toward Washington and showcase himself as the true leader fighting an entrenched establishment, he has little need for party leaders. He’s not trying to pass major legislation, where trust-building and buy-in from party leaders are essential. Instead, he’s trying to stop what he views as bad deal-making by GOP leaders too eager to capitulate.

As other detractors have been quick to pledge their support for McConnell, Cruz would not say Tuesday if he wants the GOP leader to step down.

“I’m headed to a gathering now. You can call our press office,” Cruz said before a spokeswoman stepped in front of him as he walked through the Capitol. The spokeswoman did not respond.