Yes, you are right and bring up a very good point about the regimes being weakened at that point. As for the secret regimes that were unknown to the others, there was always a possibility that Neri and Lampone would have revealed those secret regimes to Clemenza had Michael been killed. Agreed that TOm has no power, but no connections, I disagree with that statement. He was alongside The Don through all of his dealings. Heck, even in the begining of GFI when Nazorine leaves after making his request, the Don instructs Tom to give the job to one of the political connections. True that the Don was the one who has the power with the political connections, but it is obvious that Tom knew all of the people in the right places as he was the one who contacted them when the need arose. I also believe that one of the reasons that Sollozo did not kill Tom while thinking the Don dead was because he knew that Tom could still contact those political connections if Sonny made the deal. While I agree that Tom could never actually take over, there is no doubt that he could have been an asset to Lampone, Neri and Clemenza had they decided to join forces. You said it yourself, the regimes were made to look weak for appearances sake for Barzini. Clemenza could definately recruit new people if the need arose. As for your statement that Castellano was just a character change, I said that in my last post, but that is looking at it and knowing the real life story. I am talking about looking at it from within the storyline/movie itself. Pentangelli was a powerful force inside Clemenza's regime becasue he was the one to take over when Clemenza was dead. Again, this is looking at it from within the storyline and not what took place with the directors/studio in real life. As for my opinion about Barzini not trusting Tessio after that, etc. I see absolutely no reason why you should be so hostile in your reply to my original post! That is my opinion, and just like I respect your opinions, you should respect mine and not be so hostile in your replies! Telling someone that the way they interpret a situation (that really never existed) is a lot of crap is not being respectful at all. You are right that any smart man would watch his people. All I feel is that he would probably be under more scrutiny than others in Barzini family because Barzini knows for sure that Tessio has the ability to turn traitor, and if Tessio slipped just one hair length, he'd be gone like that. Again, you definately bring up some really excellent points on this subject, and I respect your veiw.


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