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Input: Cruz 's fans say it 's because he stands on principle . 
In the three years since he arrived in the U.S. Senate , Ted Cruz has become easily the most hated man in Washington -- a fact he 's now using to his advantage as a presidential candidate . 
Is it true , as Cruz would have it , that the dreaded GOP establishment pays lip service to shrinking the federal government and repealing Obamacare , but actually would prefer to preserve the status quo ? 
Or do Cruz 's Beltway critics have a point ? 
Cruz has n't hesitated to take polarizing stances , even when doing so means taking on his Republican colleagues . 
Lee is also Cruz 's best friend -- maybe his only friend -- in the Senate . 
In his memoir , Cruz writes that no one stood by him "more courageously or indispensably" than Lee during his 21-hour anti-Obamacare speech that preceded the 2013 government shutdown . 
When Lee brought up his bill in the committee hearing , he was n't sure if he 'd have Cruz 's support . 
Cruz attacked the bill as dangerous and politically poisonous . 
Cruz went on to warn his fellow senators that if they voted for the bill , they would imperil their careers . 
Essentially , Cruz was saying that the legislation would let dangerous people out of prison , they would commit more crimes , and the senators would be subject to Willie Horton-style attack ads . 
Lee , who was sitting right next to Cruz , could not believe what he was hearing . 
Lee 's communications director , Conn Carroll , confirmed to me that Lee and his staff had no advance warning that Cruz was planning to brutally attack -- and , in Lee 's view , misrepresent -- his friend 's bill . 
The bill made it out of committee that day , but now it appears to be in trouble , with several other Republican senators taking Cruz 's line against it at a Senate lunch last week . 
Today , Lee has conspicuously joined every other sitting senator in declining to endorse Cruz 's presidential run . 
And while Lee and Cruz are still friends , the episode vividly illustrates Cruz 's talent for irritating other senators . 
Another telling episode came during the 2013 government shutdown , which Cruz spearheaded , insisting that if Congress defunded Obamacare , the president might go along . 
As McKay Coppins reports in his new book , The Wilderness , Cruz 's own staff never actually expected the gambit to work . 
To Cruz 's colleagues , it was a pointless and damaging exercise , but grassroots conservative groups cheered the effort . 
Cruz is close to the Fund and has appeared in its ads . 
At a private lunch of Republican senators , New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte waved the document in Cruz 's face and demanded that he disavow it . 
When he declined , several other senators , including then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , took Ayotte 's side and denounced Cruz . 
In my conversations with Republican policy types and Senate aides about Cruz , this lack of regard for his colleagues , and for the niceties that have traditionally governed the upper chamber , was a common theme . 
As Trent Lott , the former Senate majority leader , told me last week , referring to the time Cruz called McConnell a liar on the Senate floor : "You just do n't do that . 
Another criticism of Cruz is that his antics are disruptive and damaging to the Republican Party . 
Cruz does have policy differences with the business wing of the party : Unlike the Chamber , he opposes comprehensive immigration reform , would like to kill the Export-Import Bank , and -LRB- in a reversal -RRB- opposed a recent free-trade bill . 
In Iowa , Cruz has been subjected to millions of dollars in attack ads and personally criticized by the Republican governor , Terry Branstad , for opposing ethanol subsidies . 
But a Republican policy expert close to a number of top GOP operatives and donors insisted it 's not about Cruz 's style or his positions . 
But the effort does n't result in smaller government or the end of Obamacare -- all it achieves is drawing attention to Cruz . 
You can see how these complaints look from the perspective of Cruz and his fans : like features , not bugs . 
But what about the criticism that Cruz 's efforts have n't gotten any results ? 
The Cruz camp did n't reply to my query , so I put the question to Amanda Carpenter , who was Cruz 's communications director during much of his time in the Senate , including the shutdown . 
Carpenter said Cruz had sent a message . 
Cruz has shown that one person can make a difference ." 
But as they see it , the difference Cruz has made in the Senate has not been a positive one .

Why D.C. Hates Ted Cruz . 