Defending Gingrich against Dole's dry humor, Yuval Levin clarifies the "empty bucket" situation:
It’s true that Newt Gingrich used to go around with an empty ice bucket in 1996. It was a symbol of his efforts to cut congressional perks and costs. For decades prior to 1995, every congressional office would receive a daily delivery of ice from a central freezer on the Capitol grounds. It was a holdover from the days before easy refrigeration, and it made for a nice demonstration of the sort of silly and costly perks that members of Congress received. When he became Speaker, Gingrich ended the practice and (in large part because that meant eliminating several staff positions) saved some $400,000 a year. Gingrich liked to use the ice bucket as a metaphor for Democratic governance: expensive, wasteful, and out-of-date. Whatever you think of the metaphor, it was something Gingrich talked about constantly, including on many occasions in the presence of Bob Dole.
(Photo: Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and Robert Dole, Senate Majority Leader pose with an elephant outside the Capitol building in Washington on April 5, 1995. The elephant is part of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. By Richard Ellis/AFP/Getty Images.)
The Dish 