This week, the McCain campaign is having a doozy of a big money bundler sleepover in Aspen. No word on whether their money will be tied together at the roots -- or any Judy Miller sightings -- but there is something I'm not seeing at all.

Where's Fred Wertheimer and Democracy 21?

He's been whining about Obama and Clinton and campaign bundlers and 527 groups and corruption whenever he gets the chance when it comes to Democratic issues. But when McCain gets caught with his hand in the looks like corrupt collusion jar?

*crickets*

So what's going on at McCain's cozy money retreat or bundler's paradise with a side of corrupt corroboration and collusion? Via Accountable America:

John McCain is a busy man. But he is making time to meet with Sheldon Adelson, the top funder of Freedoms Watch and other "independent" groups this Friday in Aspen, Colorado....

The meeting raises important questions:

1. Are groups Adelson is funding really independent from the McCain campaign?

2. Will Adelson use information provided to him by the McCain campaign in private strategy meetings to influence how Freedom's Watch and other groups he finances promote McCain and attack Obama?

More on Sheldon Adelson, the 12th richest person in the world, here.

It isn't just Adelson though, it's a plethora of lobbyists, money bundlers, smarm merchants and GOP ethical lapsers. Which naturally brings a whiff of eau de turdblossom:

Six GOP consultants and lobbyists — with varying knowledge of Rove's activities — told National Journal that Rove has been working for a few months to help line up resources and devise strategies for spending that money to help his party keep the White House and stave off losses in the House and Senate. Rove has had regular chats with GOP operatives he has worked with in Washington, and several prominent Republican donors nationwide — including some billionaires who were active in similar groups during the 2004 election cycle.

"Karl is up to his eyeballs in this," says one prominent GOP consultant who has met with Rove a few times this year. "They're trying to figure out who is going to do the presidential, who is going to do the Senate and who is going to do the House. They're trying to assign resources to maximize the dollars and minimize duplication. Karl has taken it over."...

...sources say he has been on the phone or meeting with old friends from Texas like oilman T. Boone Pickens and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who are expected to pony up millions of dollars this cycle to a few outside groups set up as either 527 or 501 (c) (4) entities.

Last I checked, Rove is advising McCain, doing opinion media everywhere to plant his false memes, and coordinating with groups like Freedom's Watch. Nice work if you can get it, I suppose, but that level of coordination gives him an illicit trifecta. Rove has unregulated inroads to free GOP media spew while simultaneously crafting smarmy messages for McCain's campaign through his protege Steve Schmidt, and deploying his 527 and 501(c)(4) hatchet strategy as well.

Not that this is new for McCain, considering his use of the Reform Institute as a personal messaging and fundraising ATM, and who is willing to embrace any swiftboating group that will give him the time of day, no matter how fact-challenged. But this new low of Republican brazenness about suckupitude for cash is truly appalling...or desperate. To wit:

They’ve been invited to Aspen by Fred Malek, the deputy national finance chairman for McCain’s campaign. Malek has a home in Aspen, is the founder and chairman of the private equity firm Thayer Capital Partners, and is a veteran Republican insider....

In all, counting spouses and significant others, about 140 McCain fundraisers are expected to be at the event.

The list of McCain’s “Trailblazers” and “Innovators” includes Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a senior McCain adviser; August A. Busch III of the Anheuser Busch Co.; Fred Smith, CEO of FedEx; and Ted Forstmann of Forstmann, Little & Co., which frequently holds conferences in Aspen.

Also included on the fundraisers list are Las Vegas moguls Stephen Wynn, CEO of Mirage Resorts Inc., and Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Politicians on the list include Utah Governor Jon Hunstman, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), and former Sens. Alfonse D’Amato and Phil Gramm....

Several of McCain’s top campaign aides — Charlie Black, Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt — are also expected to come to Aspen.

Malek, 71, was described in April by the Washington Post as “one of Washington’s ultimate insiders.”

Doesn't this just scream a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" festival of moneyed interest candidate buying? Especially given that lobbyists all but admit to Jeffrey Birnbaum that they don't even have to work at it in a GOP administration to get perks and loopholes for their big money corporate clients.

It's not that there isn't plenty of suspicion to go around -- because there is. Which is why outside groups that are supposed to be throwing sunshine on the problems need to..honestly...be trying to illuminate the smarm from all sides.

So, where's Fred Wertheimer on this? Same place he was on the GOP assault on campaign finance laws; recent questions about illicit McCain campaign bundling by foreign nationals ("there is probably very little law on this" -- way to do some crack research, there, Freddy boy.); McCain campaign finance law violations. I mean, hell, even McCain's pretend firing of lobbyists was just a feint.

So, where's Fred Wertheimer? Noncommittal to nowhere to be found.

When it was about Obama or Clinton -- Fred Wertheimer was like Hermione Granger with his hand in the air to rush to answer questions. On McCain? It's like playing Where's Waldo, but Waldo took a powder off the side of the page and never came back. So where's Fred Wertheimer?

(YouTube via the Exxon/McCain 2008 pit crew.  More on McCain's big oil giveaway plans here and here.)