I Was Tweeting Secret Daughter, Not Lover: Rep

For a brief, shining moment, the world thought it had another Weinergate on its hands: During the State of the Union address, Rep. Steve Cohen sent a few tweets to a 24-year-old (apparent) bikini model, then deleted them. The Tennessee Democrat is not married, and speculation quickly swirled that he had a secret lover. But, no, he just has a secret daughter, named Victoria Brink, he explains to NBC News. "When she let me know she was watching the State of the Union address I was thrilled that she wanted Steve Cohen to be part of her," the Congressman explains. (That's how NBC has the quote, but we think it's a little less odd/gross if "life" gets slipped in at the end.) "I had such joy, that I couldn’t hold back from tweeting her."

You can see how his tweets could be taken in the wrong way:

• "nice to know you were watchin SOTU(state of the union).Happy Valentines beautiful girl. ilu" (That's "I love you.")

In hindsight the whole thing is "actually [a] pretty sweet story," writes Adam Clark Estes on the Atlantic Wire. Cohen says he just found out about Brink three years ago, after Googling her mother and realizing she had a child. "The math looked pretty accurate," he says. "The mom told me we had a lot of catching up to do." He's since taken Brink to the White House Christmas party and on a tour of the Capitol. For more on the story, see the Daily Intelligencer.