Vicki Iseman has dropped her legal war against the New York Times.

The Washington lobbyist with ties to John McCain filed a lawsuit against the paper after the New York Times last February ran a story that Iseman says intimated she and McCain, then a presidential candidate, had been intimate. Iseman sought $27 million in a defamation suit, but settled her suit against the Gray Lady without a penny more to her name.

The Times has consistently stood by its story, which also detailed McCain’s potential conflicts of interest as an ethics reformer. The Times didn’t retract the article either, but it did agree to publish a (very short) Note to Readers, a joint statement by the two parties, and other commentary that stresses that the newspaper never tried to say that Iseman actually had an affair, or any sort of unethical relationship with McCain.

While some say this is a legal win for the Times (not having to pay out $27 million is certainly a victory!), Iseman’s lawyers said in their note, praising the "civilized resolution," that Iseman is a private person, never wanting to be in the spotlight, and that they were attempting to highlight the differences between public versus private individuals. They said:

"We believe passionately, however, in this basic proposition: To abandon, in law or in social convention, the division between public and private life, does not serve to advance the free exchange of ideas, but does coarsen our culture, cheapen our public discourse, and diminish our respect for human dignity."

Politico obtained the staff memo sent to Times writers announcing the settlement, which seems to be claiming victory in the whole ordeal. It says, in part:

We paid no money. We did not apologize. We did not retract one word of the story, which was a compelling chapter in the tale of Senator John McCain and his political rise. The story stands as a powerful examination of a presidential candidate who cast himself as an ethics reformer and scourge of special interests, yet seemed blind at times over the course of his career to appearances of conflicts of interest … We let Ms. Iseman’s lawyers have their say in a commentary on the Web, with a response from Bill Keller. Why? Because that’s what we do. We let people we write about have their say.