Over-It Iowa State Rep Reads Sex After Sixty at His Desk During Debate

Rep. Ross Paustian, a Republican from Iowa, is a man of many and varied interests: farming (he’s a farmer), state legislating (obviously), and, apparently, keeping his wife of many years happy. A debate in the state House on collective bargaining rights failed to grab him, and, well, he read this instead:

Brianne Pfannenstiel is a statehouse reporter for the Des Moines Register; she later provided a bit more context for the photo, namely that Paustian says it’s totally not his:

Paustian said the book has made its way around the House today and was handed to him by fellow Rep. Robert Bacon, R-Slater.

“We could all use a laugh around here,” he said.

The book is gag gift, and the pages are blank, according to a quick Google search.

Is it blank, though? A book called Sex After Sixty: A Guide for Men and Women for Their Later Years is indeed for sale on Amazon, and it was written by two very real people, Robert N. Butler and Myrna I. Lewis, who were married. One disgruntled reader on Goodreads ranked it “mediocre at best” which indicates that there’s some kind of advice in there, albeit perhaps not what Goodreader “Elizabeth” was hoping for.

In any case, Rep. Paustian has had to repeatedly explain in the last day that no, he was totally paying attention; he told local ABC station KCRG he was right there. Super engaged. Wide awake.

“I’m getting a lot of pretty vicious emails from people, so I have to explain,” Paustian said. “The main thing is I was totally engaged in what was going on on the floor. … I knew what was going on. I knew how we were going to vote on amendments. So it wasn’t like I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on.

“If any of my constituents were offended, I apologize. I certainly wasn’t trying to offend anybody. I’m doing my job here for my constituents.”

Props to Rep. Paustian for being so concerned about doing a good job in all aspects of his life. And a special congrats to his wife Carol.

Image via Shutterstock