Republicans have cried foul over what they call cozy relations between Democratic state officials and members of the Florida Supreme Court.

Sometimes members of Congress are seen as a "privileged class" with cozy relations with lobbyists and free use of official resources.

Plenty have cozy diplomatic relations with dictators from Cuba to Libya to Iraq.

The hostile takeover bid marks a radical break from the long tradition of cozy relations among Spain's top private banks.

Cracks in an Alliance For decades, many successful businesses in Mexico depended on executives' cozy, if not downright corrupt, relations with the state.

But they have shaken Japan's trust banks and life insurers, whose cozy relations with the government long protected them from competition.

"Transparency makes it impossible for firms with cozy relations with their local public authorities to win contracts by offering them kickbacks."

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 ended the cozy relations between the state and the aircraft industry.

Historians say these groups often kept cozy relations with politicians and the police, and were a widely accepted part of the social fabric.

Under a web of protectionism and cozy relations with the bureaucracy, none of these companies ever got into trouble, even though their profit performance was poor.