Dick Cheney's `rock star' travel requirements revealed

US Vice President Dick Cheney delivers remarks during a fundraiser dinner for Republican Senator Jon Kyl in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

US Vice President Dick Cheney may be a rock star only to his most ardent Republican supporters, but he has on-the-road demands just like the Rolling Stones. Still, Cheney appears easier to please than Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Or at least that was the evidence from "Vice Presidential Downtime Requirements," the heading of a document posted on Thursday on the Smoking Gun Web site and confirmed as authentic by Cheney's office.

requirements

The document listed 13 requirements. Among them: All televisions in Cheney's hotel suite should be tuned to Fox News, all lights should be on and the thermostat should be set at 20?C.

In addition, Cheney should have a queen or king-sized bed, a desk with a chair, a private bathroom, a container for ice and a microwave and a coffee pot, with decaf brewed before his arrival.

The vice president should also have four cans of diet Sprite, which is caffeine free, and four to six bottles of water. He must have the hotel restaurant menu, with a copy faxed ahead to his advance office. If his wife is with him, she should have two bottles of sparkling water, either Calistoga or Perrier.

For his reading material, Cheney should have the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the local newspaper.

check list

"The vice president maintains an active schedule which requires regular travel throughout the United States and at times involves a hotel stay," said Jenny Mayfield, a spokeswoman for Cheney.

"Our advance office provides guidelines for our volunteers in the field. This is just a routine little check list," she said.

The downtime requirements said nothing about exercise equipment, but aides to Cheney have been spotted on his travels loading and unloading a stationary bicycle from Air Force Two.