Of course, self-importance is not a quality that tends to doom people in Washington, and it does not appear to have hurt Mr. Schaitberger. He developed the political strategy that made the union effective during Republican rule in the 2000s — an emphasis on firefighters as protectors of neighborhoods and, by extension, the homeland. Under his leadership, the firefighters won passage in 2003 of the original Safer Act, which authorized about $7.5 billion worth of grants to hire and retain firefighters to protect communities from terrorism and other hazards.

Mr. Schaitberger’s influence increased during the Obama administration.

In 2009, he personally lobbied Vice President Biden and won an effective expansion of the Safer Act that helped avert a rash of firefighter layoffs during the recession. In 2010, Mr. Schaitberger and his legislative team helped pass a long-stalled bill paying for medical treatment and financial benefits to firefighters who responded to the 9/11 attacks and other ground zero workers.

Meals and Deals

Whatever its use in advancing the causes of firefighters, Mr. Schaitberger’s lavish spending advances at least one more: his own.

For about half the year, Mr. Schaitberger travels across the United States and Canada, and the bills for his meals often exceed $2,000. “We can go into, typically, a room, break bread, have a drink, share glasses of wine,” Mr. Schaitberger told me, explaining that the seven to 15 guests he usually invites are state-level union officials with whom he meets on the eve of their annual conventions. “We have a talk about the politics and the issues and the challenges.” (Mr. Schaitberger said that in addition to the expensive meals, he frequently stops by a local fire station for breakfast when he travels so that he can interact with the rank and file.)

Critics within the union see the objective in somewhat crasser terms. “You get a firefighter, a local union officer, out there making $35,000 a year, and they get to have an audience with the president, eat in a restaurant they could never afford themselves, that’s a big thing,” said a former I.A.F.F. official who asked not to be named because he feared retaliation against his union allies. “A lot of guys get rolled by that. They like the glitz.”

The dinners have also helped Mr. Schaitberger undermine opponents and insurgent candidates for senior positions within the union, some say. “I’d show up to do a campaign deal and go, ‘Where are all the people?’ ” said a recent candidate for a senior elected position, who asked not to be identified because he did not want to jeopardize his chances of running again. “It turned out all the board members were having dinner with Harold and Tom Miller,” the union’s secretary-treasurer. “They’d pull all the important people away from other candidates, have a dinner that the I.A.F.F. is paying for.”

Then there is Mr. Schaitberger’s way of isolating uncooperative officials when defeating them isn’t possible. Mike Mohler, the president of the Virginia firefighters’ union, who was part of Mr. Schaitberger’s campaign team in 2000 and 2004, says he believes he was blackballed for questioning the general president’s leadership