Then Vice President Dick Cheney walks off stage after delivering remarks at a Chamber of Commerce event in Washington, March 29, 2004. For decades, Dick Cheney, who died at 84, loomed over American life as the archetypical conservative power player: stern, unflashy, grimly effective. (Doug Mills/The New York Times) By WILLIAM McDONALD One after another they fell, towering names that needed no introduction. Pope Francis. Robert Redford. Diane Keaton. Dick Cheney. Brian Wilson. Gene Hackman....