Eddie Lampert gave a lot of money to the Republicans while he was gutting the company.
Obviously, if you're a billionaire, you are part of an elite, but not everything is political, and it's not always a matter of white hats and black hats.
He donated to democrats and Republicans... AND on the plus side he didn't try to buy influence... didn't give much to either side. Looks like the Sears thing was just too far outside of his level of expertise... in short he bit off more than he could chew. I wish him well and hope this works out.