Democrats and Republicans alike are horrified after Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate and sitting state Supreme Court justice Bill O'Neill decided to "speak up on the behalf of all heterosexual males" on Friday following calls for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign, Cleveland.com reports. "In the last 50 years, I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females," began O'Neill's extremely ill-advised Facebook post. "It ranged from a gorgeous personal secretary to Sen. Bob Taft (Senior) who was my first true love and we made love in the hayloft of her parent's barn in Gallipolis and ended with a drop-dead gorgeous red head who was a senior adviser to Peter Lewis at Progressive Insurance in Cleveland."
O'Neill claimed he was oversharing to "save my opponents some research time" and then asked: "Now can we get back to discussing legalizing marijuana and opening the state hospital network to combat the opioid crisis? I am sooooo disappointed by this national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions decades ago."
O'Neill also defended Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is accused of pursuing, assaulting, and molesting teenage girls as young as 14. "He's been convicted of nothing and he's never had the opportunity to defend himself and that violates due process in America," argued O'Neill.
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Members of both parties immediately reacted to O'Neill's post: "Not only have you lost any glimpse of support from me, [you've] also lost my respect," said Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach (D). Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor tweeted: "We have to be better than this." Read more at Cleveland.com, and read O'Neill's full original post (which has since been edited) below. Jeva Lange
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