McCain's ethics problem?

As far as I've read about McCain, heard about him in terms of his behavior and dealings with colleagues, I was aware that McCain had some issues in terms of his temper. He is *known* to have quite the temper behind the scenes, something referenced by this blogger in previous posts.

But, now, per a breaking news story from the NY Times, he also has perhaps a big ethics problem. They just broke a story 15 mins ago about a shady relationship with a female lobbyist (whom he apparently did a big favor for when she was in regulatory peril). Moreover, McCain privately noted to advisers back in his 2000 campaign when the story first started growing legs, that he had indeed acted improperly, but he would "stay away from her."

It appears this is now going to be a full story and fully investigated now despite his attempts in 2000 to quietly scuttle this story and he was effective in doing so. This will damage McCain and his squeaky-clean image as a campaign-finance and ethics candidate. How much so, it will remain to be seen. No official word yet from the McCain campaign.