Free Republic

From the end of April, the 500-year-old Royal Mail will be controlled by a Czech billionaire who co-owns a football club and is a major investor in a British supermarket - so, why would he want this ailing institution? "A pair of scissors, one empty teapot and some hot water, please." The slightly baffled staff at Claridge's scrambled to comply with Daniel Kretinsky's breakfast order as he sanitised and moisturised his hands. The upscale hotel has been serving tea to the global elite for decades but Mr Kretinsky brought along his own packet of Chinese green tea, which he snipped...

Ted Leonsis owns a sports-entertainment conglomerate that includes three major-league sports teams, a major venue in Washington DC, as well as a number of Internet ventures. He’s vice-chairman emeritus of AOL’s board, which last year purchased Huffington Post. He’s also a big, big donor to the Democratic Party and its candidates, including Barack Obama, for whom Leonsis has already maxed out his contributions in this cycle and did the same in 2008. That was in June, however, before Obama decided to shift to the Left and start indulging in class-warfare, soak-the-rich rhetoric in order to bolster his sagging ratings and...

Regime-shaking billionaire George Soros might sway the US electorate this fall - or not. Either way, the big-spending Bush blaster highlights the backdoor power of wealthy donors. One of the first jobs he found when he arrived in London from Budapest in 1947, practically penniless and speaking little English, was as a traveling salesman. The young George Soros would try to sell little knickknacks to tobacconists - unsuccessfully, as he now recalls. Often, he couldn't even find parking. His girlfriend left him because he seemed to have no future. He missed his parents. It rained incessantly. Then America beckoned. It...