example of senator rand paul s perceived policy strength with his base among those libertarian leaning tea party voters in the grassroots. he s strong on issues like more transparency for n.s.a. and drone use and senator cruz hitting him on his perceived policy strength. so i think it kind of opens up criticism to senator cruz to many republicans and democrats too, kind of point as the guy who was responsible for the government shutdown in december of 2013. jon: you say that senator cruz is trying to position himself as the goldilocks candidate. aren t these two guys sort of fighting for the same slice of the republican party? absolutely. you can say they re in one brk et together. they re fighting to be the conservative challenger to what some will call the establishment candidate, whether that is marco rubio or jeb bush. they want to be that challenger to them when it comes down to