Republican Rep. Ross Paustian was caught reading Sex After Sixty during an Iowa House meeting . There's no debate about it. Republican Rep. Ross Paustian, 59, was caught in the act of reading the book 'Sex After Sixty' during the Iowa House's debate over collective bargaining rights for teachers after a photo of him surfaced online. Paustian said the book by Dr.Alan Francis didn't belong to him but was a gag gift passed over to him by fellow Republican Rep. Robert Bacon who recently turned 60 and who sits next to him on the House floor. Paustian was barraged with critical emails after the Des Moines Register reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel posted the photo onto Twitter on Wednesday. '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 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.' KCRG reports that Democrats tried to use the photo to say that the Republicans were not paying attention to the nine hours of debate over the bill. 'It’s unfortunate,' Paustian said. 'That stuff always gets political, too. But that’s just part of the job.' Working hard? : Republican Rep. Ross Paustian, 59, was caught in the act of reading the book 'Sex After Sixty' during the Iowa House's debate over collective bargaining rights for teachers on Wednesday . Gag gift: Paustian said the book by Dr.Alan Francis didn't belong to him but was a gag gift passed over to him by fellow Republican Rep. Robert Bacon who recently turned 60 and who sits next to him on the House floor .
Rep. Ross Paustian, 59, was photographed reading 'Sex After Sixty' during the Iowa House's debate over collective bargaining rights for teachers . Paustian was barraged with critical emails after the Des Moines register reporter Brainne Pfannenstiel posted the photo onto Twitter . Paustian said the book didn't belong to him but was a gag gift passed over to him by fellow Republican Rep. Robert Bacon who recently turned 60 .