Former Representative Richard Baker

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." Thus spoke former representative Richard Baker, Republican of Louisiana, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Baker retired from Congress in February to embrace another cause that he no doubt considers divine: As the head of the Managed Funds Association, he's charged with ensuring that his former colleagues don't make a dent in the profits of hedge-fund managers. By all measures, he's taken up his new mission with zeal--a convert's zeal, even. He's now leading the fight against a measure, which he supported while in Congress, that would require fund managers to register as financial advisers.