Dick Cheney emerges as top Obama critic

By Steve Holland - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bent over his speech text, reading in a monotone, former Vice President Dick Cheney could not have presented a more stark contrast to the glitzy style of President Barack Obama.

And yet, as evidenced by his blistering critique on Thursday of Obama's handling of terrorism, Cheney has emerged as one of Obama's toughest critics and the staunchest defender of President George W. Bush's post-September 11 policies when Bush has chosen to remain silent.

The invited guests and journalists in a nondescript conference room at the American Enterprise Institute, several blocks from the White House, waited for Cheney but first got Obama instead -- on a big TV screen.

Cheney had scheduled his speech weeks ago and some in the room said they believed Obama timed his remarks to take the steam out of the former vice president's appearance.

Cheney, backstage, waited patiently for the former Democratic senator to finish his 50-minute speech, but could not resist the first of many barbs when he stepped to the podium almost an hour behind schedule.

"It's pretty clear that the president served in the Senate and not the House of Representatives, because in the House we have the five-minute rule," said the former congressman from Wyoming and veteran Washington political infighter.

He then spoke for 35 minutes.

An unsmiling Cheney delivered his shots without any significant inflection -- even as he described the most dramatic hours of the Bush presidency, the chaos of September 11, 2001 when hijacked airliners were on the loose and Cheney was moved to an underground bunker.

Such an event, he said, "can affect how you view your responsibilities."

Cheney, who often took a low-profile role as vice president, was off on a high-profile, wide-ranging attack.

* On Obama's decision to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay without a plan for dealing with the prisoners:

"The administration has found that it's easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo. But it's tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interests of justice and America's national security," Cheney said.

* On Obama's decision to stop the use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects:

"It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness and would make the American people less safe," he said.

* On Obama's release of classified memos describing interrogation techniques while withholding documents that detail any information gleaned from them: