Big Money

Mark Hanna -- the turn-of-the-century iron-and-coal-magnate-turned-operative who leveraged massive contributions from the robber barons -- was famously quoted as saying: "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is." To an extent that would have made Hanna blush, a series of developments capped by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision effectively crowned a bunch of billionaires and their operatives the new kings