Senator Slush and Representative Rapacity were hit with sudden bouts of indigestion this past week in Washington.

Perhaps it was something they ate.

More likely it was the publication of a blistering report from the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and Issue One that laid out audacious expenditures by members of Congress from both parties through their personal leadership PACs. It’s titled “All Expenses Paid: How Leadership PACs Became Politicians’ Preferred Ticket to Luxury Living,” and as you might have guessed, Las Vegas plays a prominent role in the bacchanalia that masquerades as fundraising activity. Las Vegas is such a popular destination for hedonistic high living on the donors’ dime that it earns its own category.

Fills you with a sense of community pride, doesn’t it?

Given its own ongoing expense scandal, it’s probably not something the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will want to advertise to the world, but it’s far from the first time elected officials and government bureaucrats went off the rails on the Strip. One of my favorite all-you-can-eat scandals occurred back in 2010 at M Resort and Casino when General Services Administration officials managed to spend $823,000 on rooms, food, beverages and swag during its four-day Western Regions Conference. That scandal gave self-righteous members of Congress a chance to scold and vilify GSA bureaucrats, and by 2015 former GSA official Jeffrey Neely pleaded guilty to a felony charge of submitting a false expense claim to the federal government and was sentenced to three months in jail. Who knows, maybe the video of him drinking wine and partying in a hot tub didn’t help his legal case.

These days Neely looks like a rank amateur. If he’d only been a member of Congress, his rapacious behavior might have been easily written off as part of a fundraising expense associated with a leadership PAC, which enables the elected elite to personally expense funds technically raised in support of other candidates. The law sets limits on the use of campaign cash, but the loose rules for leadership PACs allow for a glorified Mardi Gras for those willing to work the system.

Perhaps the term “slush fund” is no longer in fashion. The fact Las Vegas plays a major role as facilitator is in keeping with its own reputation as the seductive place expense accounts go to die. Through the years, what’s been bad for America has often been very good for Las Vegas.

“Since 2013, politicians from across the country have used leadership PACs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at five-star hotels, luxury resorts, upscale restaurants, and entertainment venues in Las Vegas,” the report says. Although it has a little fun at former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s expense – his Searchlight PAC bought show tickets at Planet Hollywood during a Britney Spears residency — the report saves substantial vitriol for far worse offenders.

Missouri Republican Congresswoman Ann Wagner is one. She may play a conservative in front of the home folks back in District 2 outside St. Louis, but in Las Vegas she let her hair down with luxurious nights at the Venetian/Palazzo and expenses that included dining at Tao Restaurant inside the Grand Canal Shoppes. Her Ann PAC paid Vegas tabs totaling $21,831 from 2015 through 2017. One of her stays, the report notes, corresponded with the 2015 Republican Jewish Coalition Spring Leadership Meeting at the Sheldon Adelson-run properties. These days multi-billionaire Adelson is busy donating $30 million to House Republicans.

But exploiting the leadership PAC loopholes is something both parties appear to agree is a good thing. At least, you’ll hear no complaints from Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, whose Build America PAC cut checks totaling $27,372 from 2013-2017 for catered events at Aria Resort & Casino.

Surely his constituents back in Queens will be pleased to learn he spent more than $6,200 on visits to Mastro’s steakhouse. Forget building America, pal. At this point your constituents will probably settle for a Mastro’s doggie bag.

By far the most high-profile offender of the spirit of the leadership PAC is Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California. The Forever Trump Fan Club president and House Intelligence Committee chairman just can’t seem to get enough of the Vegas scene, spending nearly $43,000 on food, lodging and entertainment in recent years. That includes a stack of greenbacks at the upscale Chart House and even more from the Del Frisco’s steakhouse off the Strip.

Although public safety is often stated as a top concern of members of Congress, from the look of things these people are more likely to die from high cholesterol than a terrorist attack.

As the Center for Responsive Politics has chronicled, the cost expensing a congressional lifestyle continues to rise for some members. And if that translates into an abuse of the system and makes a laughing stock of the leadership PACs, no one seems overly anxious to change things. And the Trump Treasury Department is busy loosening identification rules for donors to certain nonprofits.

Perhaps they’re all too busy reading menus to notice.

Or just maybe they know that the current climate of celebrated excess by the Trump administration makes a scandal involving steaks and a feather bed in Vegas seem almost quaint by comparison.

John L. Smith is a longtime Nevada columnist and author. Contact him at [email protected]. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.