The only time you take money from other people is when you inherit it. Or if you're a consultant.

Anaconda's busy eulogizing actor Ron Silver, who died two weeks ago. More particularly, he eulogizes Bruno Gianelli, a political consultant on The West Wing played by Silver. Gianelli's most salient characteristic was his utter amorality: he could go from advising a Democratic candidate for president how to slag Republicans to advising a Republican candidate for president how to slag Democrats.


Mostly the obit reveals Anaconda as a Bruno manque' but it also reveals something about Governor Mark Sanford's view of money: with eleven percent of his constituents out of work, Governor Sanford is looking to save money on bindery:

Silver was certainly there for me that night in 2001 - when I couldn’t figure out why the guy I was working for was forcing me to do crazy things like spending my own gas money to return a dozen glossy white folders I had bought for press kits.

You know, because they cost $1.19 apiece, which was “ridiculously expensive.” Especially when we could just “use staples.”

I’ve learned a lot in the intervening years from both Mark and Bruno, but that first lesson was the most important.