For people who love golf, the chance to play at the five-star Greenbrier resort in West Virginia is a dream come true. Especially if someone else pays for it.
That was the case this summer for two powerful members of Congress, House Republican Minority leader John Boehner of Ohio and Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.
Accompanied by top corporate lobbyists , the two golf-loving Republicans spent a luxurious weekend at the Greenbrier, the kinds of cozy gatherings new ethics reform laws were supposed to curb.
"You're seeing the quintessential Washington insider pay-to-play game," said Meredith McGehee, Policy Director at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
Many people assumed these types of outings were ended when Congress passed reforms in 2007. But those reforms didn't mention what has come to be an important source of funding for politicians: leadership political action committees, or PACs, whose money can be spent for almost any purpose, including golf.
Members of Congress are supposed to use their leadership PAC funds to support other politicians. But in the 2008 election cycle, Chambliss spent more money from his PAC on golf outings, $225,000, than on donations to other political campaigns, $204,000. On Capitol Hill, his leadership PAC is known to some as a golf PAC.
Click here to see ProPublica's database and find your congressman's leadership PAC.
Chambliss declined to be interviewed for this story, but in a statement he said he holds the golf outings only to raise money.
A spokesman for Boehner's PAC, The Freedom Project, also defended the spending as legitimate and said that through his PAC, he contributed "more than any other Republican in the House."
McGehee and others call leadership PACs modern-day slush funds. Some members of Congress use them for pretty much whatever they want, including subsidizing their lifestyles and hobbies.
In a joint report with the investigative journalism group ProPublica, ABC News found that members of Congress used leadership PAC money to pay for visits to ski resorts, casinos, Disney World and the Super Bowl. Senate Majority Harry Reid of Nevada used leadership PAC money to throw a $39,000 inaugural party. New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel ordered a $64,000 oil portrait of himself.
Reid spent 53 percent of his PAC money on campaigns he was supporting. That's $1.1 million.
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