But some Republican colleagues — clearly not all, but some — have detected a slight change in tone, at least for now.

“I think early on Ted was more interested in standing out, exclusively,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is working with Cruz to increase military aid to Israel, said Wednesday. “Now he wants to stand out in a way consistent with his values but he also likes the fact that he can collaborate and be helpful.”

Take the Internet freedom legislation, which has become a rallying cry among libertarian conservatives. Currently the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based non-profit, oversees website domains but is transitioning to a more global group that some fear would lead to control of websites by hostile governments.

Cruz has pushed to attach language blocking the ICANN transition to the funding legislation that Congress is approving this week to keep the government open. Many Democrats and Republicans feared that Cruz was going to use the issue to take another stand that could shut down the government.