New bombshell for McCain as blonde lobbyist is forced to deny having an affair with him



John McCain’s bid for the White House suffered another bombshell last night after a female lobbyist broke months of silence to deny having an affair with the Republican candidate.

‘I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain,’ said 41-year-old Vicki Iseman.

The top Washington lobbyist was speaking for the first time since allegations surfaced in February suggesting the couple had been close before his first run for the presidency in 2000.

Rumours of an affair between Mr McCain and Vicki Iseman surfaced in February



The timing of the denial has left McCain aides deeply suspicious.

Coming just 18 days before the November 4 election, Iseman’s remarks threw the scandal back into the spotlight just as Mr McCain was fighting to keep up with rival Barack Obama’s surging campaign.

Iseman defended herself to the National Journal magazine, saying: ‘I never had an affair or an inappropriate relationship with Senator McCain, and that means I never acted unethically in my dealings with the senator.’

Iseman, who is a partner in the lobbying firm of Alcalde & Fay, told the magazine: ‘I have never even been alone with Senator McCain.’

When the story broke, the allegations of sex and influence-peddling caused a sensation.

John McCain addresses the annual Al Smith Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York last night

The New York Times said that in 1999, McCain aides worried that the Arizona senator and the lobbyist may be having a fling.

The newspaper didn’t publish any evidence of a relationship.

Mr McCain furiously denied the story and described Iseman as merely a friend.

‘At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust,’ he said at the time.

Since then, Mr McCain's relationship with the media has grown increasingly cool.

In the run-up to the election, the story had been largely forgotten and his second wife, Cindy, has been ever-present at his side during campaign events.

Barack Obama speaks as John McCain looks on at the dinner last night

Now he faces the prospect of being thrown back on the defensive just at a time when he was launching an all-out attack to gain ground on his Democrat opponent.

Iseman reportedly claimed: ‘The New York Times set out to write a story about a 'romantic relationship' in exchange for legislative favours.

Make the lobbyist a prostitute - pretty heady stuff. The only problem was, they were wrong on all counts.’

The latest twist on the campaign came as the FBI confirmed they were launching a nationwide probe into the activities of ACORN, the left-wing activist group accused of faking voter registrations by using bogus names like Mickey Mouse.