When George W. Bush chose his running mate in 2000, he got exactly the kind of partner he wanted.

But nowadays, Time notes, he faces the very problem he tried to avoid.

Bush stumped just about everyone with the selection of Dick Cheney, safe and solid a pick as it was.

W didn’t want any trouble. He didn’t want a V.P. who hogged the spotlight, a sparring partner on policy, or a candidate who’d check out after five years and run for President himself.

Just the same, Cheney has become the Bush Administration’s enemy within.

This is a man whose single-minded pursuit of ideological goals, dwindling political instincts and penchant for secrecy produced an independent operation inside the White House that has done irreparable harm.

On a hypothetical political balance sheet, Dick Cheney might very well be Democrats’ most valuable asset - and reversing that trend is next to impossible.

Cheney recently made his weekly pilgrimage to the U.S. Senate, where he had lunch on March 6 with Republicans. He took his usual seat on one side of the stately Mike Mansfield Room and watched the proceedings quietly.

Various Senators asked about his health, following a blood-clot scare the day before. Others quietly lent support in the wake of the Scooter Libby verdict earlier that day (he was found guilty on four counts).

But for all the shows of support, more Republicans have acknowledged each week privately a sentiment building across Washington when it comes to the Vice President: his time has passed.

But what a time it was for the Dick.

Back in the days of George Bush’s first term, Cheney aides loved to regale journalists with tidbits about the scope of the Vice President’s influence and the intensity of his commitment to protecting the U.S. from terrorism.

He was so driven and hands-on, aides say, that he and Libby would routinely ask to see raw intelligence rather than the processed analysis put together by the CIA, FBI and other agencies.

He may have come across as deferential in public, but friends and advisers in the fall of 2002 described Cheney as nothing less than the engine of the Administration. No question who the sole decider really was.

“There’s no way in which he is not driving the train on this,” said one, referring to Cheney’s role in pushing George Bush and the Administration inexorably toward a war in Iraq.

Continue reading this article in Time …