Cheney under political cloud after Libby trial

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House offered support on Wednesday for Vice President Dick Cheney, a powerful proponent of the Iraq war, after the conviction of his top aide dealt a fresh blow to Cheney's political reputation and raised new questions about his influence.

The trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby showed Cheney, often portrayed by critics as the shadowy Darth Vader behind the war in Iraq, was deeply involved in an effort to discredit a critic of the administration's prewar intelligence.

Libby's conviction on perjury and obstruction of justice charges placed Cheney squarely in the center of a new political storm. Democrats said Libby was "the fall guy" for his boss, who was not charged in the case and not called to testify.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Cheney would remain an influential and trusted adviser to President George W. Bush.

"To the idea that somewhere the vice president has been 'diminished' ... No, not true," Snow told reporters. "The vice president still remains a trusted aide. The vice president is somebody upon whose counsel the president depends."

The administration offered concrete evidence of Cheney's continued role in the last week. As the jury deliberated Libby's case, Cheney completed a trip around the world to make the administration's diplomatic case against Iran's nuclear ambitions and for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On his return, he was greeted as a hero in a speech to a conference of conservative activists who constitute the administration's core group of supporters.

"Publicly he may be scarred, he's a damaged commodity, but the question is whether he still has clout in the administration and the answer has to be yes," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution.

CONSTITUENCY OF ONE

"He really has a constituency of one -- President Bush," Hess said. "We really don't know what that relationship is, but there is no evidence that it has been impaired. The president still seems to listen to him."

Cheney's lack of political ambition -- he said from the beginning that he would not seek the presidency after his term as vice president ended -- has helped inoculate him from purely political evaluations.

With neither Bush nor Cheney destined to appear on a political ballot again, the vice president's mounting political liabilities are less crucial, Hess said. Any speculation Bush might replace Cheney is "silly talk," he said.

Snow said no one else could judge the relationship between the president and Cheney, who has been one of the most powerful and influential vice presidents in history.

"What he says is offered in confidence and received in confidence. Anybody who wants readouts on how they interact, they're in the wrong place because neither of them is going to talk about it," Snow said.

Cheney said he was "disappointed" by the conviction of Libby in the probe of the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly challenged the administration's intelligence claims about Iraq.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has said there will be no more charges and the investigation is inactive.

With two more years remaining in the administration, Cheney is likely to continue playing his role as fund raiser and voice for the administration before selected audiences.

"He'll continue to give red meat to the true believers, and maybe in larger doses than ever. So he gets beat up by The New York Times -- you get a badge of honor for that in some circles," Hess said.