"As vice presidents go, Mr. Cheney was a singular figure: more powerful and less ambitious for higher office than any vice president in modern times...."

"In many ways an inscrutable personality, he had no patience for small talk, almost never spoke about himself and rarely gave interviews or held news conferences, although he sometimes went on television to promote administration policies and was often in the news. He preferred the backstage to the spotlight. A consummate Washington insider, Mr. Cheney was an architect and executor of President Bush’s major initiatives: deploying military power to advance the cause of democracy abroad, championing tax cuts and a robust economy at home, and strengthening the powers of a presidency that, as both men saw it, had been unjustifiably restrained by Congress and the courts in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. As Mr. Bush’s most trusted and valued counselor, Mr. Cheney foraged at will over fields of international and domestic policy. Like a super-cabinet official with an unlimited portfolio, he used his authority to make the case for war, propose or kill legislation, recommend Supreme Court candidates, tip the balance for a tax cut, promote the interests of allies and parry opponents...."

From "Dick Cheney, Powerful Vice President and Washington Insider, Dies at 84/A former defense secretary and congressman, he held the nation’s No. 2 job under President George W. Bush and was an architect of policies in an era of war and economic change" (NYT)(free-access link, because this is a very long and fact-heavy obituary).