THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Oh sure his sanctimonious, hypocritical pastor daddy may see him as anointed by his personal invisible sky demon to take over the world, but when he does he will probably be alone. In another segment of Ted Cruz's life he once again displays his talent for making enemies.

In late November 2000, with senior aides to George W. Bush holed up in Tallahassee, Fla., navigating the thickets of election law, a 29-year-old domestic policy adviser named Ted Cruz was given a humbling task: walk a stack of papers to Federal District Court.

A top lawyer for Mr. Bush’s campaign grabbed Mr. Cruz by the shirt, pulled his face close and instructed him not to screw up.

“It entails walking across the street and handing these papers to the clerk,” Mr. Cruz recalled responding. “I feel confident I can accomplish that task.”

Mr. Cruz, now a Texas senator and a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, rarely invokes the 2000 race and recount. He has largely disavowed the comparatively moderate Bush wing of the Republican Party in pursuit of conservative ideological purity.

Yet his initial venture into presidential politics is by turns a confirmation of, and a complication for, the professed Cruz image.

The race installed Mr. Cruz as a creature of the Republican establishment — but also helped initiate his divorce from it. He made plenty of enemies among party operatives, according to interviews with over a dozen former colleagues, though for reasons that had little to do with ideology.

“I was far too cocky for my own good,” Mr. Cruz wrote in his book, “A Time for Truth,” explaining how the burned bridges probably cost him a desired job in Mr. Bush’s White House, “and that sometimes caused me to overstep the bounds of my appointed role.”

On this point, Mr. Cruz and his detractors agree.

Who needs friends when the Rapture comes.