Also it's amusing how Cost equates urban machines with being for the 'rich and powerful' when in fact the machines, corrupt as they were, existed to allow those who would otherwise be shut out of the system a foot into the system. Someone once pointed out that just because the US doesn't have rampant bribery of low level bureaucrats like police officers and customs officials, it doesn't mean the US isn't corrupt. It only means that the rich exclusively benefit from corruption. Low-level corruption at least allows the poor to benefit from corruption as well.
Ah, equal opportunity corruption. I hadn't thought of that one before. 
The whole 'Robin Hood' tale is proof that deep down, people understand the logic that moral standards for the poor should be looser than for the rich. The farm laborer who sells his vote for a crisp twenty dollar bill. Well, and a Mugwump 'reformer' sees this and scolds the farm laborer, 'You should not sell your vote!' The laborer takes off his hat with his calloused hands and replied, 'Madam, give me the political influence you derive from your money and your connections, and I will give you this twenty dollars.'
