Listen up, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of your own is calling you out.

Jennifer Rubin, a noted conservative columnist for the Washington Post, says Cruz is too mean and his mean streak is hurting the conservative cause.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/04/29/dont-be-a-jerk-sen-cruz/

I don’t particularly care if Cruz’s brusque behavior harms conservatives. I do care, though, if it gets in the way of good government.

Cruz has been in the Senate for less than four months and already he’s making a name for himself, several names in fact. And some of them might be unfit for print here.

Remember the time he questioned whether Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, two decorated Vietnam War combat veterans, had a “sufficient regard” for the military? And this came from someone who’s never worn his country’s military uniform.

Well, he’s taken – in Rubin’s view – to voting against legislation and then criticizing his fellow Republicans for voting against his wishes. Rubin compares Cruz unfavorably to fellow tea party Senate golden boy Rand Paul, R-Ky., who Rubin describes as being “polite to a fault.”

“These qualities serve him well, indeed making some strident positions seem less so. Moreover, Rand Paul is trying to accomplish something. He’s put forth a budget. He’s offered suggestions to amend the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill. He’s suggested reforms to our drug laws,” Rubin writes about Paul.

Cruz, on the other hand, comes off as a strident know-it-all who hasn’t been in the Senate saddle long enough to understand the long-standing clubby nature of the organization to which he was elected.

And when the rookie senator gets dressed down in public by the sometimes-irascible Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for impugning the integrity of someone such as former Republican Sen. Hagel, then you’ve been dressed down by one of the best.