Bush, Cheney reverse roles out of office

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In eight eventful years together, George W. Bush was the frontman and Dick Cheney his behind-the-scenes adviser. Now free of the White House, they are enjoying a role reversal.

Bush, back home in Texas, has declared himself "free at last" of the trappings of power and is writing a book, developing his presidential library, giving paid speeches and riding his mountain bike.

But he is not commenting on his successor, believing it to be inappropriate for a former president, even as his former aides chafe at what they consider a deliberate attempt by President Barack Obama to blame Bush for the country's ills.

"I didn't like it when a former president criticized me, and therefore I am not going to criticize my successor," Bush said last week in Michigan. "I wish him all the best."

Former Vice President Cheney, no longer the No. 2 and under no constraints to hold back, has emerged as the Bush administration's top defender, aggressively taking on Obama on his national security policies and economic program.

Cheney mostly kept silent publicly while vice president, believing his advisory role for Bush required it. He has remained largely in the Washington area since the end of the Bush presidency and is writing a book about his 40 years in politics.

In speeches and television interviews, Cheney has condemned Obama's efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison for terrorism suspects and outlaw harsh interrogation techniques that he and other Republicans insist saved lives.

Cheney served as defense secretary under former President George H. W. Bush, overseeing the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.

Asked in a Fox News interview if he thought Obama was "soft," Cheney said: "I can't say that. I do think he's still, you know, still learning. He was a state senator and then he was a U.S. senator for a few months, and then he ran for president."

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Former Bush aides said Bush is appreciative of the role Cheney is playing.

The two men talk regularly on the phone.

"Each of them appreciates the situation of the other," said Karl Rove, long one of Bush's closest advisers.

"President Bush appreciates Dick Cheney taking a courageous stance in defending the administration from distortions, and Vice President Cheney understands that his role is different and appreciates the president having a restrained approach to it."

Ed Gillespie, who was Bush's counselor and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said some around Bush at first were not comfortable with Cheney's role but that this view had evolved.

"This debate needs to be engaged," he said. "He is the most steeped in it and knowledgeable about it and he doesn't have a political ax to grind. And six months from now the substance of the argument will have been put forward and new faces are going to emerge from the Republican Party, so you get the best of both worlds."

Former White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: "He's given us the chance to have a frank and candid discussion about interrogation techniques and the war on terror."

Is Cheney's argument paying off? A USA Today/Gallup poll this week found that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to closing Guantanamo and moving some of its detainees to U.S. soil.

A CNN poll in May said 37 percent of Americans had a favorable opinion of Cheney, up 8 points from when he left office in January.

Analysts said Bush and Cheney in their own ways are working to rehabilitate their images.

"Bush truly is happy to give up the burdens of office, and wants to become acceptable, and wants to become less unpopular," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political science professor.

Cheney could easily have slipped into obscurity," he said. "I think part of this is his desire to rehabilitate his image and to play a prominent role."

Republican strategist Charlie Black said Cheney is helping energize conservatives in the wake of the Republican Party's heavy losses in the 2008 election.

"Dick Cheney is very popular with the Republican base and keeping them fired up is a big challenge right now because you have a Democratic president in a honeymoon period," he said.

Democrats have gleefully sought to portray Cheney as the face of the Republican Party, believing that it helps them any time he speaks by reminding Americans of what they did not like about Bush.

Carter Eskew, an adviser to former Vice President Al Gore, said it is never easy being the No. 2 in the White House.

"To some extent Cheney was muzzled and I think now he feels free to speak his mind," Eskew said. "Any time you serve in an administration and you're the No. 2 guy, there are a lot of things you want to say and not say."

(Editing by Paul Simao)