Nebraska lawmaker faces calls to resign after invoking colleague's name in book's rape scene passage

Republican Nebraska state Sen. Steve Halloran is facing calls to resign after he inserted a colleague's name into a passage he read during a floor debate from a book's rape scene that included graphic detail.

Halloran apologized on the Senate floor Tuesday morning, defending his decision to read the passage but saying it was a "mistake" to reference his colleagues.

"I apologize for interjecting the senators' names in the middle of reading a transcription, transcribed testimony in a public hearing, in reference to a book that is in some schools, and in some schools, required reading," he said. "It was a hard thing to read. And no, I was not trivializing rape. I was reading from a book that’s required reading for some students. Should I have interjected the senators' names? No. Sometimes we do things on the floor in the midst of making a statement that we shouldn’t have done."

The remarks under scrutiny came during a debate Monday over a proposed bill, Legislative Bill 441, targeting obscenity and pornography in K-12 schools.

Halloran was reading from Alice Sebold's memoir, "Lucky," in which she described being raped in college, and he repeatedly invoked "Sen. Cavanaugh" as he read directly from the passage describing the incident of sexual violence. He didn't specify if he was referring to Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh or her brother, Nebraska state Sen. John Cavanaugh, both Democrats. In his apology Tuesday, he said his comments were initially directed at John Cavanaugh, who had spoken before him.

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh lashed out at Halloran later Monday in emotional comments on the floor. "You don't know anything about anyone else's life. And I can tell you that women in this body have been subjected to