When Senator Geary met Michael in Michael's office, he acted outrageously--saying that because he (Geary) despised Italians, Michael would have to pay more than 12 times the cost of the gaming license he wanted in order to obtain it(plus a monthly fee of five percent of the gross of all four hotels the Corleones controlled in Nevada). No self-respecting Mafiosi (or any other gangster, such as Hyman Roth) would have stood for such an insult. But was Geary's behavior a surprise? Or did Michael expect him to act the way he did? The Corleones clearly weren't naive about politicians.

I personally believe that Micheal, through all of his and his fathers experience, had anticipated atleast the possibility of Geary's outrageous outburst/demands, and put together a contingency plan, ie implicating the senator in a murder at Fredo's brothel.

Though it was an effective strategy, Roth had perhaps secured the more powerful piece in Questadt. Vito maybe would have made a stronger point not to allow this to happen - we see from the reason he gave not to take the Sollozzo deal that he was very careful not to jeapordise his contacts or any future ones.

Like Jack Woltz, Geary felt unassailable by Michael. What's more, Geary was confident that his status as a U.S. Senator placed him in the catbird seat. In turn, that seat gave him the confidence to insult Michael.

Michael probably was surprised because Geary's ethnic slurs were an unnecessary embellishment that Michael felt should be uncharacteristic of a Senator and unncesary to their busines deal. That scene is analogous to one in the novel: Some bootleggers approach Vito about the use of his olive oil trucks to deliver liquor and in exchange for an enormous fee. However, they accompany their offer with a threat which Vito felt was totally unnecessary.

I think there was an element of surprise in Geary's demands and his outburst. When Geary said, "That will leave you with a problem: the LAH-sense will be in Klingman's name," Michael looked surprised and replied, "Turnbull's a good man..." I inferred that Turnbull was Geary's bagman, and that Michael had already made some bribery arrangement to Geary, through Turnbull, to nullify that "problem." Michael also shoots Tom a look of inquiry as if to say, "Didn't you square this with Turnbull? What is this?"

I definitely believe that Michael had the brothel killing scenario up his sleeve prior to the "oily hair/silk suit" rap. Geary had to have been a regular at Fredo's brothel--he told Tom re. the hooker, "We done it be-FOE-wer." Fredo or his manager had to have alerted Michael, who would have stashed that powerful blackmail lever away for future use.

But TB, don't you think that Michael's surprise was in reaction to Geary's knowledge about the move against the Tropicala?

I'm pretty sure you're right - it was more a look of 'how did he find that out?!'.

Would it be so suprising that the senator of Nevada wouldn't know these things? Just wondering.

Well, I am quite sure that neither Michael or Tom wanted it known, thought it was not known, and thus, were surprised.

I guess Turnbull was a good man after all.