I can't believe this thread is still going, but I'll throw in my two cents anyway. Being that there's not much collusion going on between wiseguys and politicians today, you have to go all the way back.

It was the mob's political connections back in the '30s and '40s which allowed them to become the powerhouse they eventually became. It's the very reason no start-up ethnic crime group today can ever match what they accomplished: You just can't buy that kind of political protection in today's world.

And if you're going to talk about that time period, it begins and ends with Frank Costello and the crooked Tammany Hall Democrats. Now I'm sure that Republican judges and politicians took bribes, too. But Costello's bread and butter was his political allies in the Democratic party. It's no contest.