Short-term results “can and will be lumpy,” Fortress Investment Group CEO Wesley Edens told investors after the firm announced first-quarter results earlier this year. When does “lumpy” become something more serious?

Samuel Israel III, the fugitive hedge fund manager, has come in from the cold.

Looks like Samuel Israel III, the hedge fund manager convicted of fraud, may be alive and well and camping in a state park near you.

Stephen Feinberg, the very private founder of Cerberus Capital Management, hates attention.

He even put it in writing.

John Edwards, the candidate who has stacked his campaign on fighting poverty, was embarrassed once again last week by John Edwards the multimillionaire.

Edwards, who declared his candidacy from the decimated Ninth Ward of New Orleans, and who has repeatedly criticized foreclosures on mortgages held by victims of Katrina, is a major investor in Fortress Investment Group, one of the companies foreclosing.

Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has taken some heat for his split with his party over a plan to raise taxes in the hedge fund and private equity industries.

Some scratch their heads and wonder if the frequent crusader for the middle class is being overly influenced by political contributions from the buyout kings, who would see their personal taxes more than double under the plan.

But there really is no mystery. Schumer, a career politician and life-long New Yorker, is being true to his city, where many of the buyout firms are based.

Does the Securities and Exchange Commission favor business over investors?

Absolutely not, says chairman Chairman Christopher Cox, a former free-market Republican congressman.