In real Mafia families, the consigliere is a high-level man, usually a caporegime with his own troops and rackets that bring him money. The Don appoints him consigliere as an added honor and because he values his advice. He’s never on salary, never a lawyer and never anything but a full-blooded Italian. Of course the Don can do what he wants. And Vito broke the mold with Tom Hagen for important reasons, mostly having to do with his own security:
Many people here have wondered how the Corleones, the biggest family in New York, could have gotten by with only two caporegimes. But the novel points out that Vito guarded himself against plots by having only two, and keeping them far apart—Clemenza lived at the Mall, Tessio was on his own and seemed to operate almost independently, the better to confuse his enemies and to keep the two from conspiring against him. He had raised Tom as a son from a tender age, assuring that he would be as loyal as Sonny. He sent Tom to law school to strengthen his power base with judges and politicians—as a fellow lawyer and fellow “Irishman,” Tom could be more effective and less an object of scorn among those bigots than an Italian. Tom probably drew a salary from Genco Olive Oil and got handsome cash gifts from Vito. That way he didn’t have to to have soldiers and rackets, which assured that he wasn’t viewed as being in the “muscle end of the business,” and also meant that he’d never develop a power base that could be used against Vito. Nor would he have any assets of value to potential traitors in the family. He was, in effect, Vito’s captive.
That worked to Tom’s advantage when Vito was alive. But under Michael, Tom was not a son, or a brother, but “our lawyer.” Although Michael valued Tom and used him when he really needed him, Tom was never on the same ground as he was with Vito and Sonny. By the end of II, Tom was reduced to an object of Michael’s scorn. When Michael said, “I thought you were going to tell me that you’re leaving to become vice president of the House and Hotels,” and, “You can take your wife, your family and your mistress and move to Vegas,” he was not only belittling Tom, he was mocking him. “Why do you hurt me, Michael—I’ve always been loyal?” Tom was reduced to crawling, while Neri, so obviously the source of that info, smirked. What Michael was reminding Tom was that he couldn’t leave the family—he had nothing on his own, and had he tried, Michael would have him whacked rather than let him get out of his gilded prison.
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