Yesterday on the cable network Bravo, they re-ran an episode of The West Wing entitled "Gone Quiet." In it, the President's campaign director Bruno Gianelli (played by Ron Silver) argues that the campaign should begin running ads in key states to counteract an opposition leaflet campaign that brands President Bartlet as "Super Liberal."To run the ads, however, the campaign will need to raise and spend so-called "soft money" by exploiting a loophole in campaign finance reform legislation that the Bartlet Administration supported. Bruno meets resistance from presidential aide Sam Seaborn (played by Rob Lowe) who stands firm against Bruno's urging that they make use of the loophole to get around the spirit of the law. But Bruno argues that they will lose the election if they try to run their campaign adhering to self-imposed rules that the opposition will ignore.Finally, Bruno explodes:
I am tired of working for candidates who make me think I should be embarassed to believe what I believe. We all need some therapy, because somebody came along and said Liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on communism, soft on defense, and we're going to tax you back to the stone age because people shouldn't have to go to work if they don't want to.And instead of saying, "Excuse me, you right wing, reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun, Leave It To Beaver-trip back to the '50s," we cowered in the corner and said, "Please don't hurt me."No more. I really don't care who's right, who's wrong. We're both right, we're both wrong. Let's have two parties."
Indeed. Let's.Too bad Ron Silver is such a right-wing toady.