The problem with Madman Theory and 12th dimensional chess is that sometimes crazy like a fox is just crazy. 

Nobody really understood why Speaker Pelosi decided to put a halt on turning over the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Maybe she just wanted to have a longer moment in the sun. Or maybe she hoped that the disastrous House hearings that were televised, which wrecked support for impeachment, needed some time and distance. But nobody quite knew. And yet the media kept claiming it was a genius move.

It was 12th dimensional chess.

Now the chess game approaches its final dimension. 

It was a bad sign when a magazine owned by a billionaire running for president had this to say. “Impeachment Standoff May Be Near End With Pelosi Allies Stumped – Bloomberg”.

Senior Democrats in the House insisted publicly that the speaker has given them no hints on timing for sending the two articles of impeachment over to the Republican-controlled Senate, the step that would trigger an immediate opening of the historic impeachment trial.

Amid speculation about her rationale and expressions of exasperation from Democrats in the House and Senate — delivered almost exclusively on condition of anonymity — Pelosi offered only cryptic clues.

It’s really something when House and Senate Democrats were left in the dark.

After repeatedly insisting that she wouldn’t turn over the articles of impeachment without seeing the details of the trial, Pelosi finally folded.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday the House will take steps next week to send articles of impeachment to the Senate ending Democrats’ blockade of President Donald Trump’s Senate trial.

She said she has asked House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler to be prepared to bring to the floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate.

“I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting on how we proceed further,” Pelosi wrote. She did not announce a date for the House vote.

And the circus continues.

Pelosi has tried to block impeachment, then take impeachment hostage, and is now playing an odd game of doling out the details piecemeal while keeping her own people in the dark. 12th dimensional chess indeed.