[gusmahler]

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* Kill an anonymous hooker in order to frame a U.S. Senator.


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I was always under the impression that Tom Hagen set that one up while Michael was on the road with the Hyman Roth business.

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Hagen worked for somebody.

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Yes, but what better way to get back into Michael's good graces than to pwn the Senator who dissed him?

Also, Michael didn't even know what his kids had gotten for Christmas upon his return. It's not like they were burning up the phone lines while he'd been gone.

I'm sticking with my original assessment.

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IMO, Michael may not have known the EXACT details of how to get the Senator, he did instruct Tom to do "something". Tom's "something" was just something that mob people do.

IN a similar manner, Vito may not have known about the horsehead, but Tom was under instructions to get to the producer.

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It's made clear in the book that Hagen was not involved in the horse head incident. Unfortunately, the book doesn't go beyond Michael's takeout of the Family heads and Moe Green.

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Haven't read the book in a long time and forgot about that.

My point was that, you may be right in the literal sense--Michael knew nothing about HOW the Senator became cooperative (one of the things about plausible deniability is that the less the boss knows, the better). But the fact that Michael didn't directly order a particular hooker to be killed doesn't mean he didn't condone it (at least indirectly).

IOW, Tom knows he has to turn the Senator's thinking around. But he also knows he's not going to do that by creatinig a point paper, he has to use force--it's the way business gets done.