Bob Dole has written a letter urging Republicans to run away from Newt Gingrich. You should read the whole thing, but here are some excerpts:

I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway.

…In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year. Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it, and I’m not certain he knew either.

Now the commenters at National Review are attacking Dole for being a shitty conservative—have you ever noticed that, except for Reagan, every Republican stops being a real conservative once they’re out of office?—and the whole thing is a mess. But not enough attention is being paid to that weird bucket line:

23 replies on “What Was Newt Doing with an Empty Bucket?”

  2. He wanted to be prepared in case he was suddenly rendered mute when someone asked him, “What’s the difference between Newt Gingrich and a bucket of shit?”

  5. A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was seen a signal: “Water, water. We die of thirst.” The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A second time, the signal, “Water, send us water!” went up from the distressed vessel. And was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” A third and fourth signal for water was answered: “Cast down your bucket where you are.” The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River.
    Booker T. Washington

    Booker T and Newt. Newt and Booker T. Washington. Obviously. Obviously. I’m surprised there isn’t more discussion of the similarity between Newt and the great black orators.

  6. [H]ave you ever noticed that, except for Reagan, every Republican stops being a real conservative once they’re out of office?

    That’s not entirely true. The GOP didn’t even wait until W was out of office before they revoked the “true conservative” accolades they had heaped on him during his campaigns. The GOP starts backing away from their champions as soon as it becomes clear their policies have (once again) turned everything to shit.

  10. @1: can you please summarize, for those of us who would sooner cut our fingers off than give NRO/The Corner a single page view?

  12. @5 Nice. And I agree… it’s stunning that the state that was the site of Booker T Washington’s Atlanta Address and was home to WEB DuBois also… produced… Newt. Stunning, that is, in the sense that a blow to the head is stunning.

  13. @ 10,

    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.

    I had to click that link a second time since I had closed the tab…

  17. @14- from Airplane II: The Sequel

    Controller #3: Get me Steve McCroskey!
    Controller #2: Are you kidding? Ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, he’s been completely senile!
    Controller #3: Yeah, but what about McCroskey?
    Controller #2: About the same as Reagan.

  19. ever noticed that, except for Reagan, every Republican stops being a real conservative once they’re out of office?

    No true Scotsman. It’s how conservatives explain, after the fact, the way their chosen leaders consistently expand government and increase deficits while claiming to be against those things, or why the policies of the last Republican administration did not yield the promised results of lowered unemployment and widely distributed prosperity.

    “Well, Bush wasn’t a true conservative.”

  20. If Newt Gingrich was seen with a bucket, this tells me a spoon was in his pocket and a horse wasn’t too far away.

    Seriously, as cadaverous as Bob Dole seemed in the 1990s, he was and is a gentleman. I can see where he and Gingrich would have differences.

  22. @13, doubtless in the 1920s and 30s congressmen had actual iceboxes containing 10-lb blocks of ice and pitchers of cold buttermilk to offer visiting constituents; by the 40s and 50s ice deliveries changed to cubes for the bourbon. I mourn the passing of both the buttermilk and the bourbon eras in Congress.

    @19, that’s the public front, anyway, but it’s been conservative policy for more than 30 years to floor the spending pedal when they’re in power for the things that give them stiffies (tax cuts, flawed weapons systems) to hamstring liberals for their inevitable turns in the majority.

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