Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, appeared to thumb his nose at fellow Republicans Thursday night when he posed for a picture with conservative Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) just off the Senate floor. 

They posed with their arms folded, grinning for the camera in the midst of a government shutdown fight that Paul himself had triggered.  

The snapshot was especially galling to Republicans because the trio posed in front of the Senate portrait of Henry Clay, the 19th century Kentucky senator known as the "Great Compromiser." Clay is the historical hero of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who negotiated the budget deal that Paul was trashing.

"[Paul is] the perennial annoying gadfly with no positivity associating with it. What he did didn't change the outcome. He's all about grandstanding," said a Senate Republican aide.