no one is saying these guys have judges and polticians in their pockets "like nickels and dimes", that shit was over rated even back in frank costellos day. yes in many ways it has lost its "prestige"(or at least the illusion of it), just look at the bust of nicky mouths santoras crew from a few months back, those guys were defiantly sloppy, selling weed and fucking viagra pills and running a medium sized book, but even those guys had their hands in the unions.