As someone's who only a casual observer I find this surprising. Paulie to me would have the higher power, as I always saw him more as a high rank member of Tony's crew, and Bobby just as Junior's babysitter.
In the prior episode one of Phil's crew mentioned that Bobby was only Junior's driver but a lot has changed this season... We see him sitting with Silvio and Tony on several occasions discussing Family business (including one in which we see Bobby and Paulie almost coming to blows - when Paulie questioned who sanctioned the hit on Phil).
Tony came within an inch of killing Paulie earlier this year.
