Dick Cheney may have been a nontraditional vice presidential pick. But the indictment of Lewis Libby reflects the fact that he and his aides sometimes played a traditional vice presidential role: attacking political rivals.

And though Karl Rove has at least temporarily escaped charges in a probe stemming from the leak of a CIA agent's name, the entire matter has long sounded like an operation from the playbook the top White House strategist used in past campaigns, including those he ran for President Bush.

The Rove formula: Win at all costs. It's prompted sharp tactics against Bush foes like Sens. John McCain and John Kerry, former Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, and Texas GOP rivals Rob Mosbacher and John Weaver, later an adviser to McCain.

But the man who holds the somewhat misleading title of deputy chief of staff has often avoided direct responsibility and now may have avoided something even worse — a criminal charge.

In this case, the target was former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. The reason: his role as a critic of a key rationale for Bush's decision to attack Iraq, the suggestion that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons.

Cheney, of course, was one of the main advocates of the attack that overthrew Saddam. His questions about reports that the Iraqi despot had sought nuclear material from Niger apparently played a role in triggering Wilson's mission to the African nation.

What apparently set off the White House assault was Wilson's increasingly public role, climaxing with a 2003 article in The New York Times that directly challenged the claim about Saddam and nuclear weapons.

In the days after its publication, both Libby and Rove played an active role in seeking to undercut Wilson's credibility by suggesting to reporters that, because of his wife's role in the CIA, his criticism was part of an ongoing effort by the intelligence agency against the White House.

The formal charges against Libby stem from his efforts to spread word of Wilson's connection, via his wife, to the CIA.

When asked about this, the indictment said, he falsely testified that he got the information from reporters in what may have been an effort to shield the vice president from direct involvement in the effort to discredit Wilson.

Still, it's been evident that Cheney, whom Bush picked primarily for his vast governmental experience, is no slouch in making pointed charges against political rivals. It's a role many past vice presidents and vice presidential candidates have played.

Last year, he caused a stir by suggesting that, if Kerry beat Bush, the nation would face an increased risk of terrorist attacks.

As for Rove, he has long been known for the hard-nosed politics he learned as an ally of the late Lee Atwater in Young Republican politics three decades ago.

As he worked his way up the political ladder, controversy has accompanied the man whose mastery of political strategy helped him become one of the most powerful White House aides in history.

An early incident was the bugging of his office during Bill Clements' 1986 gubernatorial campaign, which some foes alleged he did himself. Another was his ouster from the 1992 campaign of Bush's father, when he was blamed for a leak aimed at Mosbacher.

In the late 1980s, Rove had ties to an FBI probe of top Democrats that led to the conviction of three aides to Agriculture Commissioner Hightower. Rove, who was advising his Republican rival, Rick Perry, now the state's governor, denied any direct role in the incident, which contributed to Hightower's 1990 defeat.

In 2000 and 2004, it was widely believed Rove had ties to "independent" efforts aimed at Bush rivals, but he denied it and nothing was proved.

In 2000, Weaver accused Rove of involvement in the anonymous phone calls during the critical South Carolina primary that falsely accused McCain, who adopted a child from Bangladesh, of having fathered an illegitimate black child. Later, some close Rove allies were involved in misleading ads against the senator's environmental record.

In 2004, the issue was the so-called "Swift Boat" ads, sponsored by longtime GOP contributors, which accused Kerry of exaggerating his claims of heroism during the Vietnam War.

But Rove has always managed to deflect criticism and avoid legal difficulty. The fact that he has so far escaped indictment after a lengthy and intensive probe suggests he may do so again.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.