Rachel Maddow<\/strong><\/a> show interviewing the principals.<\/div>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cheney’s MAD Perrspectives May 13, 2009 Dick Cheney’s MAD, just not in the way you think. As Time, the AP and virtually every pundit across the political spectrum debate the meaning of Cheney’s ubiquity on your television screen, it may be an old Cold War theory which best explains his strategy. The former vice president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/cheney_way0.jpg\")
Dick Cheney’s MAD, just not in the way you think. As Time, the AP and virtually every pundit across the political spectrum debate the meaning of Cheney’s ubiquity on your television screen, it may be an old Cold War theory which best explains his strategy. The former vice president isn’t merely trying to rewrite history or work the jury with his repeated claims that torture "saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives" and that "nothing devious or deceitful or dishonest or illegal about what was done." With his brinksmanship, Dick Cheney is threatening the political equivalent of Mutual Assured Destruction to produce a stalemate he apparently believes he will win.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/cheney_way.jpg\")
<\/div>\n![](\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/cheney_way1.jpg\")
With the prospect of an atomic political conflict assured of leaving both parties devastated, stalemate is the only alternative. And in Dick Cheney’s case, stalemate equals victory. By ratcheting up the public pressure, Cheney is forcing Obama’s hand: act on torture, or back down. And by backing down, Obama would in essence codify the Bush administration’s criminality. In the unsteady equilibrium which would endure, the Bush torture team would appear to be right, seemingly vindicated. Like the Soviet threat, the risk from torture prosecution would be successfully contained. In his eyes, Cheney’s omnipresence isn’t a nightmare for Republicans, but their path back.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/cheney_way2.jpg\")
But mostly, my impression of Dick Cheney right now is that he’s doing what Dick Cheney does. What I mean is that this is simply part of his character – his personality. An influential Psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein, once remarked how astounding it is that people do the same things over and over. In psychodynamic circles, it’s called "character" or "the repetition compulsion" or "structure." Each of us has a set of tools we use when faced with problems or conflict, and we use them over and over. Cheney mounts campaigns. Remember the lead-up to the Iraq War? He was everywhere. It’s what my friend means when he says, "it’s his nature." He’s doing the exact same thing now that he did when he got us into this mess. Mounting a campaign, mobilizing evidence [true or false]. Attacking his enemies. Calling on friends. It’s "the Cheney Way<\/strong><\/font>." Discrediting Pelosi is the this-time version of discrediting Joe Wilson. All this speculation about his motive is moot. What matters is what he does [over and over]. It’s often called bully-ism<\/em>…<\/p>\n