There are no more "undisclosed locations" for Dick Cheney these days.

The former vice-president preferred the shadows during his eight years in the White House, but now you can't escape the man.

Every time you turn on the television, there he is, defending the Bush-era interrogations of terror suspects, including the simulated drowning procedure known as waterboarding, and excoriating President Obama for outlawing them.

It's an extraordinary, ongoing national media tour. Yet his relentless campaign has put the Obama White House and many Democrats on the defensive when it comes to the issue of torture – no mean feat for one of the country's least popular politicians.

Asked in a recent interview if he believed Mr Obama's decision to ban harsh interrogation tactics made America less safe, he replied in his methodical monotone: "I do. I think those programmes were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think that’s a great success story."

Mr Cheney argues that what was done to terror suspects in the months after the September 11 attacks was legal – Bush Administration lawyers wrote opinions at the time saying that it was – but, nevertheless, he is still defending torture. Remarkably, his campaign is twisting many Democrats in knots and complicating Mr Obama's legislative agenda.

On one level, Democrats love the fact that Mr Cheney has suddenly become the Republicans' most high-profile, outspoken face – he has a negative approval rating of 63 per cent – at a time when the party is fumbling around for a fresh philosophy and new standard-bearer.

Yet every time he appears, the clamour from the Left and a growing number of Democrats on Capitol Hill for full-scale, public investigations into the Bush-era anti-terror tactics grows louder.

It has gained a momentum that today is almost unstoppable. Every time Mr Obama wants to move forward and focus on his hugely ambitious agenda of health, energy and education reform, there is Mr Cheney, dragging the President and his party back into the brambles of torture and what to do with Guantánamo Bay.

Mr Cheney is also calling for the release of two CIA memos that he says prove that harsh interrogations gleaned crucial information that saved lives. The CIA has refused. Mr Obama could overrule this, but so far has also refused. It is making people wonder if Mr Cheney may be right.

Meanwhile, Mr Cheney's uncompromising stance has played a significant role in embroiling Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House Speaker, in the torture controversy. The former vice-president has consistently said that politicians from both parties were briefed about these techniques back in 2002. Ms Pelosi, who has long decried the Bush White House over torture, has always claimed that she was never told about tactics such as waterboarding.

It has now emerged that she was told by the CIA in September 2002 that waterboarding was being used. Ms Pelosi, after a series of contradictory statements, acknowledged last week that she was briefed, but not about waterboarding. She accused the CIA of lying.

The CIA's Democratic director, Leon Panetta, is standing by the agency's version of events. It has turned into a crisis for Ms Pelosi, and there are few women in America Mr Cheney would rather see in such political distress.

Yet there is one reason above all why this media campaign may prove dangerous for Mr Obama.

Mr Cheney is carefully preparing the ground in case there is another major terror attack on the US. According to a recent poll, a significant majority of Americans believe that torture is justified to gain important security information. On this point, Mr Cheney has the public behind him. There were no other attacks after September 11, he argues. We did what we had to do, and we kept America safe, he says. Mr Obama is weakening us, he warns.

If there is another attack, you can guarantee the first man out there saying "I told you so" will be Dick Cheney. It won't matter whether or not he is right – most Americans will probably agree with him. For a president, nothing is more important than convincing voters you did everything you could to keep them safe, and the onus will be on Mr Obama to prove just that.

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