McCain hits back over ‘love affair’ claim

A battle royal has opened up between the John McCain campaign team and the venerable New York Times over a report due to be published today which rekindles a rumour from 2000 that the Republican frontrunner had an affair with a 32-year-old lobbyist during his last run at the White House. The report claims McCain's advisers "intervened to protect the candidate from himself" and ordered McCain's staff to warn away the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, after she had turned up with him at fundraising events, in his office and aboard a client's corporate jet.

The New York Times reports that the 71-year-old married senator and Iseman, now 40, both deny a romantic relationship. But it claims that his 2000 campaign advisers were convinced of an affair and that they were deeply concerned about "even the appearance of a close bond" with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee McCain led.

The paper added: "The concerns about Mr McCain's relationship with Ms Wiseman underscored an enduring paradox... Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest."

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, McCain's current campaign communications director, Jill Hazelbaker, said the New York Times had "lowered its standards to engage in a hit-and-run smear campaign".

She went on: "John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honour and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favours for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election."

McCain himself refused to comment on Wednesday about the article, saying he hadn't read it yet.