Sen. Ted Cruz might have alienated the Republican establishment with his all-night polemic against the Affordable Care Act. But that doesn't mean the caustic Texan didn't win any friends in Washington. As Cruz's 21-hour speech dragged on, GOP Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky were among the supporters who joined him on the Senate floor.

The tea party trio — all potential 2016 White House contenders — lavished praise on each other in a bid to attract support and attention from the GOP's conservative base, concluding that speaking to frustrated Americans outside Washington was more important than kowtowing to party leaders.

Their calculation made clear that GOP officials who are pushing the party to adopt a more moderate tone in the wake of back-to-back presidential defeats will have difficulty convincing the party's brightest stars to give up the populist anti-Washington rhetoric and rigid ideology that vaulted them to prominence.