A legislator caught holding a book titled “Sex After Sixty” on the floor of the Iowa House Tuesday night has issued an explanation and an apology.
Representative Ross Paustian, a Republican from Walcott, said the book had been a “gag gift” to the representative who sits at a neighboring desk. Paustian, who will turn 60 next year, said someone handed the book to him during lengthy House debate of a controversial bill about collective bargaining rights for teachers. A Des Moines Register reporter snapped a photo of Paustian leaning back in the chair at his House desk, holding the “Sex After Sixty” book open in front of him and posted that picture to Twitter.
Paustian told a Lee Enterprises reporter this afternoon that he “never read the…thing” and he’s gotten “a lot of pretty vicious” email from upset constituents who saw the photo. Paustian said he was “totally engaged” in debate on the bill and he wanted to apologize to anyone who may have been offended.
Paustian told The Des Moines Register on Tuesday night that the book had been making its way around the House floor.
“We could all use a laugh around here,” Paustian told The Des Moines Register.