JCrusher said Carlo Gambino wanted the Gambino Family
To go in the direction of more white collar rackets and schemes hence choosing Big Paul to take over.
Was that a move Gambino would have to discuss
With the Commission?

No. A lot of the bosses agreed with that anyway. The Commission hated Cowboys like Anastasia and Galante which is why they got rid of them lol

Was the Anastasia hit ordered by the commission? I guess I just assumed that it was just Gambino and Genovese, then Luchese helped smooth things over.

No, the Anastasia hit was not sanctioned by the commission. It was done by Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese with the Gambino family sending their own shooters. It was kill first or be killed scenario. Anastasia was having problems with two of his crews, and Joe Biondo made the approach to Gambino, and Carlo relayed it to Genovese through Lucchese. Genovese and Lucchese had always felt threatened by Anastasia, and Vito Genovese knew Anastasia was still gunning for him due to the attempted hit on Frank Costello, despite the two peace sitdown meetings among the New York bosses up to Anastasia getting killed. Anastasia had been stepping on alot of other families toes, in and out of New York, so they figured kill him now and there would be less backlash.

First: The Commission was (is?) a general board of directors for LCN. It did not dictate how families operated or get involved in families' business decisions, except if their operations interfered with other families' businesses or interests, or shut them out. That's why the Concrete Club, the private sanitation rackets, and the NYC Housing Authority's window replacement schemes were shared among families--and why Galante was whacked because he was hogging the Sicilian heroin pipeline.

Second: Genovese was named acting boss of Luciano's family after Charlie Lucky went away for double digits in 1936. But Genovese fled to Italy in '37, one step ahead of a murder rap. Costello became acting boss. When Genovese returned after WWII, he found Costello firmly entrenched--"The Prime Minister of the Underworld"--and, with Willie Moretti as his protector, untouchable. Moretti's brain was being eaten away by syphilis, and he was whacked in '51 after an embarrassing appearance before the Kefauver Senate Subcommittee's hearings on organized crime. Costello then adopted Anastasia as his protector;; and after Anastasia made the Mangano brothers disappear in '53, he assumed their seat on the Commission. Now Costello's protector was a fellow Don. Genovese's attempt to have Costello whacked failed, but it sent a strong message. The second message was Anastasia's murder, which convinced Costello to step down.

Another possible factor: Anastasia was in NYC on the day he was killed to meet with a Cuban union officer to discuss muscling in on the Havana Hilton, which was being built at the time. Havana was Trafficante and Lansky territory.

How powerful was Willie Moretti as Underboss?? He's not talked about much; All i know is he had a crew in Jersey.

Moretti was a friend (some say a cousin) of Costello--Uncle Frank was best man at his wedding. He was nominally a capo in Costello's family, but his gambling and other rackets in NJ and upstate NY, operated in partnership with Joe Adonis and Abner "Longy" Zwillmman, and enforced by a 60-man crew, made him far more powerful, wealthy and independent than he might have seemed. The fact that he didn't operate in NYC kept him off the general public's and law enforcement's radar.