"I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain"

From AP:

A female telecommunications lobbyist who became part of an explosive story early this year about John McCain has broken months of silence to deny the main subtext of the account — that she was suspected of being romantically involved with the Republican presidential candidate. "I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain," Vicky Iseman told the National Journal magazine.

Um, something smells here. (Not to mention, why give a quote that sounds eerily like Bill Clinton during the Monica affair?)

Vicky Iseman has been missing for six months. She hasn't been in the news. Everyone has forgotten about her. She now appears, out of the blue, in a National Journal story, and gives an on-the-record interview denying, in quotes, that she had a "sexual relationship" with John McCain. Huh? That isn't something you just do out of the blue. You don't go public and give an interview about a possible sex scandal, less than three weeks before the election, after everyone has already forgotten about the sex scandal. It just doesn't make sense.

One more thing. National Journal says the interview took place last month. That's a nuance without a difference. If you're Vicky Iseman, you don't disappear since February - for seven months - only to reappear six weeks before your good buddy John McCain's election in order to remind everyone that you did not have sex with him. That's just absurd.

There are a few possibilities of the rat I'm smelling:

1. Perhaps Vicky Iseman wants to hurt John McCain, so she's going public right before the election to remind people of the possible affair. But this doesn't make sense, as, if she wanted to hurt McCain, she'd allege that she had an affair, she wouldn't deny it.

2. Perhaps someone is about to break a story proving that McCain and Iseman had a sexual relationship, and the McCain campaign asked Iseman to publicly deny it before the story comes out. This one seems plausible to me.

3. Perhaps, just as McCain had his staff say a few weeks ago that he had an affair 50 years ago with a hot Brazilian, McCain sees it in his political interests to have guys think he maybe, just maybe, he DID have an affair with a hot, blonde woman nearly half his age. Maybe, but that seems a bit extreme.

4. Perhaps this is another weird Hail Mary (hail Vicky?) attempt by McCain to change the conversation away from the economy? Talking about a sex scandal is better than talking about his age? I don't know, sounds weird, but then again, he is desperate.

I have to go with option two. It sounds like someone has the story, and the McCain people are trying to pre-empt. Iseman knows Washington. You don't go public on something like this less than three weeks before the election, not without a good reason.

UPDATE: Here's the original story in National Journal. It's very pro-Iseman. They make it sounds like she simply wanted to clear her name. Still, I find it odd that she's doing it weeks before the election. That's not how you get a story to blow over.