Ted Cruz is Democrats' Best Weapon

Dana Milbank talks about the fallout from Ted Cruz's insistence on a cloture vote for raising the debt ceiling.  Here is his description of the Republicans' scramble to find the votes:

But 15 minutes after the voting should have ended, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had apparently secured only two of the five Republican votes he needed to join all 55 members of the Democratic caucus to pass the measure. He raised three fingers in the air and worked his way among his members but was met with folded arms and shakes of the head. Looking queasy, he patted his thigh nervously and drummed his fingers. In the hubbub, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) knocked a full glass of water and coaster from McConnell’s desk to the floor......
Watching the chaos from the side of the chamber was the man who caused it: Cruz, his hands in his pants pockets and a satisfied grin on his face. The Texas Republican strolled to the clerk’s table to check on the vote count and was met with a look of disgust from Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). And the feeling was widespread: Moments after Cruz walked into the Republican cloakroom, four senators emerged from it and changed their votes to “aye.”

Cruz reemerged from the cloakroom, chewing gum, his hands again in his pockets. He smirked as his colleagues finally overcame his filibuster after a ­59-minute struggle.

Milbank goes on to describe how Cruz forced several key senators to cast "aye" votes that will be used against them by Tea Party challengers in the primary.  I can't figure out what Cruz's game is.  He is aligning himself as the leader of the moron caucus, and all I can figure is that he's trying to win the 2016 GOP presidential nomination by being the Tea Party candidate.  All the damage he's done to the party will cause the majority of his fellow office holders and the chamber of commerce types in the party to fight him tooth and nail to make sure he doesn't get the nomination, and he will seriously damage the electoral chances of whoever wins the nomination, including if he were to somehow win it.  I just don't see how this does any good, unless he's just looking to bail out of electoral politics and join Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh in the grifter caucus so he can collect money from the rubes.  Everything I've seen from him so far indicates that if he's planning on staying in electoral politics, he's one of the worst strategic planners the GOP has ever had, and that's saying something.