When a vast but little-known government agency spent $822,000 in taxpayer money to fly 300 bureaucrats to a luxurious spa and casino outside Las Vegas for a conference in October 2010, its leaders had a goal: to make it “over the top,” according to a government report that has set Washington abuzz.

But it was news of the conference entertainment — a clown and a mind reader — that prompted snickering on Tuesday across this city, which always savors a scandal. And with the snickering, there was a question: If they had a clairvoyant, how come nobody saw the backlash coming?

“Arrogance, immaturity, entitlement,” said Kenneth Donohue, who spent nearly a decade investigating cases of fraud and abuse as inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development…

The G.S.A., as it is known, is essentially the government’s personal shopper for big-ticket items, like buying and leasing buildings and cars.

Heads rolled there on Monday — the top official, Martha Johnson, fired her top two deputies, and then resigned in disgrace — hours before the agency’s inspector general released a blandly titled “Final Management Deficiency Report,” whose contents were anything but bland about the conference at the M Resort Spa Casino. Its details — $58,808 for “audio visual services;” a “networking reception” where the fare included “Petit Beef Wellington” and 1,000 sushi rolls at $7 apiece; $147,000 for airfare and lodging; a $75,000 “bicycle building project” designed as a “team-building exercise” — were enough to prompt people in Las Vegas to wish, as the old saw goes, that what happened there would have stayed there.

“The perceptions are lousy,” said Sig Rogich, a Republican fund-raiser in Nevada who also knows Washington well, from his days as an assistant to the elder President George Bush. Mr. Rogich defended his city: “This is a bargain place to stay, you can eat and sleep and be entertained here for a fraction of the cost of any place in the world…”

Martha Johnson

Washington is no stranger to spending scandals and their accompanying mind-numbing reports. In 1986, there was the euphemistically titled “A Quest for Excellence: Final Report to the President by the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management” — an accounting of the Pentagon’s $535 hammers and $640 toilet seats.

The G.S.A. has a history of scandal. In 2006, a former agency chief of staff was found guilty on charges that he lied to the agency’s inspector general and a Congressional committee in connection with investigations of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The same year, the head of the agency, Lurita A. Doan, was strongly criticized by its inspector general for proposing cuts in financing for investigations of fraud and wasteful spending. Ms. Doan, now a columnist for a conservative Web site, was forced to resign two years later after she was accused of trying to steer contracts to her friends — an accusation she denied.

The latest report, coming as both Republicans and Democrats are emphasizing responsible spending, has proved an embarrassment for the Obama administration, which has issued a directive to all agencies to review expenditures on conferences…

Of all the qualities that differentiate Democrats and Republicans – and there aren’t many – living the lifestyle of the rich and famous obviously ain’t one. The article makes comparisons to recent Republican goodwill spending; but, being an old fart, I can recall vicuna coats and a dog named Checkers on one side of the aisle and a Congressman on the other who went to prison for tax evasion – and was re-elected 3 more times after he got out.

Remember voters may be dumb; but, generally it’s the press that keeps them ignorant.