>> reporter: best out of the frying pan into the fire. house speaker nancy pelosi who took more heat than anyone else in the negative ad onslaught. >> the people in her district that know her the best actually really like her. the people outside of her district, the rest of america, are wondering whether or not she has the ability to blink. >> she seems as disconnected to me as obama but in a less likeable way. >> best case of making the major parties blink, like it or hate it, the rise of the tea party. >> i still don't understand where they came from. is it really the republican party in disguise? and they've just been so successful. >> i think that means we're winning. >> it's shocking to me. >> reporter: they did not grab as many congressional seats as they would have liked, but they did grab the washington