Onlookers were startled last Thursday when a man with a video camera approached House Minority Leader John Boehner after the event in Sterling, Virginia at which GOP lawmakers outlined their “Pledge to America” for this November’s elections. The event had been open only to credentialed press, but as Boehner left, he saw a group of Tea Partiers standing across the street and went to speak with them. That’s when the man with the camera moved in. “Speaker Boehner [sic], have you been cheating with Lisbeth Lyons, the lobbyist for the American Printing Association?” the man asked. “Have you been sleeping with Lisbeth Lyons?” Boehner walked silently past the man and never acknowledged his presence.

Within 24 hours, there was a story on the Drudge Report headlined PAPER: DEMS PLAN SEX HIT ON BOEHNER? It seemed to come from nowhere, but in fact it came from that brief moment in Sterling, and the man who stepped out of the crowd.