Twice in two pages near the end of the novel (pp.412 and 413), Michael and Tom discuss Michael's progress in getting his father's "political connections" "wired into" him. First, Michael regretfully shakes his head and says he needed four more months (before the Don died) to line up all of them, but he adds that he has "all the judges...and some of the more important people in congress...and the big party boys in New York..." Later, after he knows that Tessio is setting him up, he says that it looks bad for the Corleones but adds that "my father was the only one who understood that political connections and power are worth ten regimes."

All well and good. But what we see after that is pure muscle: the Great Massacre, after which Michael picks up and relocates to Nevada. Why did he need all those political connections in NY?