AND POOR DONALD THINKS THE SAFETY WORD IS, "WALL":

"I think the American people recognise that we must keep government open, that a shutdown is not worth anything," said Pelosi as Trump nodded. "And that we should not have a Trump shutdown."

The president looked up and said: "A what? Did you say a Trump - ?"

After two years surrounded by loyalists and sycophants, Trump had got his first taste of what life will be like with Pelosi in control of one half of Congress. And as the cameras rolled, he quickly lost his cool, declaring he would be "proud to shut down the government", trapped on live TV by his temper and the pincer movement of Pelosi and the top Democratic senator Chuck Schumer.

Pelosi walked out of the White House into brilliant sunshine in sunglasses and a fiery red coat looking triumphant and returned to Capitol Hill to make jokes about Trump's manhood and utter the memorable description: "It goes to show you: you get into a tickle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you." [...]

According to the Wall Street Journal, there were more than 135,000 adverts during the midterms attacking Pelosi by name, and some Democratic candidates ran for election vowing not to vote for her as speaker if they won.

Wendy Schiller, chair of political science at Brown University, called the attack ad strategy "wasted money, pure and simple". Republicans "mistakenly believed that voter animosity towards strong women was interchangeable, so they tried to get the voters who disliked Hillary Clinton to see Nancy Pelosi the same way and then transfer that dislike to their local Democratic congressional candidate.

"That is just way too many connections for most voters to make, and it infuriated a lot of women. It is as if the GOP did not live in the same #MeToo moment as the rest of us."

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