According to Politico:

Ted Cruz faced a barrage of hostile questions Wednesday from angry GOP senators, who lashed the Texas tea party freshman for helping prompt a government shutdown crisis without a strategy to end it.

At a closed-door lunch meeting in the Senate’s Mansfield Room, Republican after Republican pressed Cruz to explain how he would propose to end the bitter budget impasse with Democrats, according to senators who attended the meeting. A defensive Cruz had no clear plan to force an end to the shutdown — or explain how he would defund Obamacare, as he has demanded all along, sources said.

The story added this:

“It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy – he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was,” said one senator who attended the meeting. “I just wish the 35 House members that have bought the snake oil that was sold could witness what was witnessed today at lunch.”

The reason Senator Cruz couldn’t answer a question about what his end-game strategy was is that he never had one. That was obvious right from the outset. His whole plan was based on an illusion, which is that Republicans had it within their power to defund the Affordable Care Act. That was never possible, even as Mr. Cruz insisted it was. Which is why it was a very bad idea.

All of this is worth keeping in mind the next time the junior senator from Texas decides he’s the True Conservative in American politics and those who disagree with him are part of the “surrender caucus.” It turns out his critics were part of the Reality Caucus, which is a far better one to have membership in.