>>537498405
Well it's what Copen says in A Clockwork Daydream and I don't have any reason to doubt that. If the current state of our world has taught us anything, it is that you don't need to exert any actual hard power to get what you want. You just have to be the richest man in the room, and any politician/power person will compete over who can suck you off the hardest. With Nova gone Sumeragi probably lost one of its best, and the loss of the Muse set back their plans, but they still got there in the end and even got their biggest danger to don the uniform.
Zed knows about the golden rule; The man with the gold makes the rules.