McCain Involved in Sex Scandal Claims NY Times

Senator John McCain's presidential nomination from the Republican Party is almost just a matter of time now. However, the senior senator seems to have other things to worry about. A major newspaper has insinuated that he is involved in a sexual scandal.

The New York Times, has published a story that Republican presidential frontrunner, McCain, has enjoyed an affair with a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman. In an article, "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk", the paper says Iseman "had been turning up with him (McCain) at fund-raisers, in his offices and aboard a client's corporate jet." The article says, "Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman's access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity."

The article also says that when the media reported that McCain "had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist's clients, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement."

"Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards," the New York Times article says, "his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest."

McCain has denied all allegations in the article, and so has Iseman. A press release issued by McCain's campaign responded to the article by saying, "It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election." It said, "Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career."

Soon after the report was published, Iseman's bio, it seems, was pulled off the website of her employers, Alcalde & Faye. While Huffington Post has a screenshot of the bio, blogger Will Bunch has a photo of Iseman with President George Bush.

October, last year, journalist Ron Rosenbaum had written in a blog that he had come to know from "a well-connected media person" that "...the LA Times was sitting on a story, all wrapped up and ready to go about what is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate." The LA Times apparently never published the story, which, it is conjectured may have been the same as reported by the NY Times.