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King cake makes the Hill rounds on Fat Tuesday

Louisiana Republican Steve Scalise is the King (cake) of the Hill

A mask in honor of Mardi Gras hangs in a Senate office building in 2019.
A mask in honor of Mardi Gras hangs in a Senate office building in 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday) is synonymous with purple beaded necklaces, gold feathered masks and krewes parading the streets.

Fat chance of finding any of that on Capitol Hill.

Instead, some lawmakers marked the day by flashing their king cakes online, courtesy of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise. First the minority whip and his staff arranged delivery of the cakes to colleagues. Then they sat back and retweeted the “thank yous” that rolled in.

“Thank you for throwing off our diet, Steve,” quipped Rep. Steve Watkins. “This’ll be nice before Lent.”

The cinnamon roll-like cake is traditionally dressed in icing and topped with colored sugar, while a plastic baby figurine gets buried in the dough. (A year filled with luck awaits whoever finds it.)

Louisiana bakery Manny Randazzo Original King Cakes baked these particular bready cakes, and most of Scalise’s krewe — at least those tweeting cake-related thanks — appeared to be Republicans.

Carnival season begins in early January and ends the day before Lent.

Scalise’s office did not respond to Heard on the Hill’s request for comment about who takes the cake in cake spending: him or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who readily acknowledged this week that his PAC spent more than $8,600 over the course of a decade at Junior’s Cheesecake in Brooklyn.

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