McCain Bombshell Alert

The NYT decided to go with a story this p.m. on John McCain's much-rumored relationship with Vicki Iseman, 40, a partner at the firm Alcalde & Fay, who represented telecommunications companies for whom the Senate commerce cmte that McCain once chaired was pivotal.

"Both say they never had a romantic relationship," reads the article, with an unusual four-person byline (Rutenberg/Thompson/Kirkpatrick/Labaton). "But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity."

In a statement released tonight after the NYT posted the article on its website, McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker called the report "gutter politics."

"It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign," she 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."