Are Democrats intentionally trying to lose the next election? Because that’s the only possible way to explain this:

Twelve Democratic Senators spent last weekend in Miami Beach raising money from top lobbyists for oil, drug, and other corporate interests that they often decry, according to a guest list for the event obtained by POLITICO.

The guest list for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s “winter retreat” at the Ritz Carlton South Beach Resort doesn’t include the price tag for attendance, but the maximum contribution to the committee, typical for such events, is $30,000. There, to participate in “informal conversations” and other meetings Saturday, were senators including DSCC Chairman Robert Menendez; Michigan’s Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow; Bob Casey of Pennsylvania; Claire McCaskill of Missouri; freshmen Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Begich of Alaska; and even left-leaning Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Across the table was a who’s who of 108 senior Washington lobbyists, including the top lobbying officials for many of the industries Democrats regularly attack: Represented were the American Bankers Association, the tobaco company Altria, the oil company Marathon, several drug manufacturers, the defense contractor Lockheed, and most of the large independent lobbying firms: Ogilvy, BGR, Quinn Gillespie, Heather Podesta, and Tony Podesta.

As Politico wryly notes:

The retreat’s guest list is a marked contrast to Menendez’s recent rhetoric, which has echoed the White House denunciation of “special interests” and “fat cats.”

First, Bernie…what the fuck are you doing? You just lost my respect. Second, did you guys fall out of the stupid tree and hit every fucking branch on the way down?

Just how tone deaf do you have to be (not to mention, corrupt)? If Obama had any brains, and really wanted to indulge his post-partisan fetish, he would call on these senators to pay back the cost of this trip out of their own pockets.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee apparently gave $500,000 to Ben Nelson to run TV ads saying how great he is on healthcare–while he was planning on stabbing the Democrats in the back on healthcare–and while Martha Coakley, who would have been a good ally on healthcare, was struggling for funds.

Stupidest political party in recorded human history.