When Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen tweeted and deleted messages ending "ilu" (I love you) to a beautiful blonde college girl, Washington speculators began asking questions. 

And rightly so, one might argue, since Anthony Weiner set the bar so low for how public representatives are viewed in the US.

But an explanation seems to have emerged, showing that the 'flirty' texts sent from Rep. Cohen's Twitter account may not have been what people initially thought.

"Happy Valentines beautiful girl. ilu", read one tweet, which was swiftly explained away as to a young girl whom Cohen regarded as "family". But that wasn't quite true either. 

Cohen has told sources today that the girl in question, known as @victoria_brink on Twitter, is in fact Cohen's daughter who he only learned about 3 years ago.

Cohen even went so far as to take Victoria with him to the White House, but request one picture with her, him and the President, and one without her, showing the lengths to which the Congressman went to conceal the existence of his daughter.

Perhaps some news outlets may feel bad, and a little creepy, for asking questions such as, "Is Steve Cohen schtupping his buddy's daughter?"