In the last presidential election cycle, Tribune Company boss Sam Zell's most prominent statement about politics — other than "it's unAmerican not to like pussy" — was that his preferred candidate would be "anybody but Clinton." That's when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was still running. In the end, he gave at least $40,000 to the McCain-Palin campaign.

This time, Zell has made a statement of a different sort. He donated $100,000 last fall to Karl Rove's super PAC American Crossroads. The committee is in the news today because it raised $18.4 million over the past year from a lot of influential interests, many of whom gave a lot more than Zell.