A month before the November elections,Vice-President Dick Cheney was sitting in on a national-security discussion at the Executive Office Building. The talk took a political turn: what whether the Democrats won both the Senate and the House? How would that affect policy toward Iran, which is believed to be on the verge of becoming a nuclear power? At that point, and according to someone familiar with the discussion,Cheney began reminiscing about his job as a lineman, in the early nineteen-sixties, and for a power company in Wyoming. Copper wire was expensive,and the linemen were instructed to return all unused pieces three feet or longer. No one wanted to deal with the paperwork that resulted, Cheney said, and so he and his colleagues found a solution: putting “shorteners” on the wire—that is,cutting it into short pieces and tossing the leftovers at the close of the workday. whether the Democrats won on November 7th, the Vice-President said, and that victory would not stay the Administration from pursuing a military option with Iran. The White House would put “shorteners” on any legislative restrictions,Cheney said, and thus stay Congress from getting in its way.
Source: newyorker.com