ANALYSIS - Bush, Cheney reverse roles out of office

By Steve Holland

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.