O’Neill camp hitting LaTourette for talking about Caribou, Viagra and pipelines

U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Chagrin Falls) made a joke.

LaTourette was explaining to the Twinsburg and Hudson Chambers of Commerce how the construction of a pipeline had not harmed the local Caribou population in Alaska, but instead had grown it five-fold since the 1970s because "the warmth" of the pipeline had been making the caribou "frisky."

In a bit of "convention week fun," the campaign of LaTourette opponent, former state Appellate Judge William O'Neill (D-South Russell), decided to razz the Congressman about his answer regarding Alaska and energy somehow drifting to the mating habits of Caribou.

"Unlike Steve LaTourette, I have no expertise on the mating habits of caribou, but I guess if we're going to use these types of analogies you could call his energy plan 'Viagra for the oil companies,'" said O'Neill spokesperson Justin Barasky. "I'm sure the voters of Northeast Ohio are grateful that they have a congressman so intimately familiar with caribou, but they deserve someone who will fight for them and not for Big Oil and Big Energy. And that's why Bill O'Neill is running to bring change to Washington."

The O'Neill campaign pointed to O'Neill's "Five-Star Energy Plan" that "combines common sense short term relief with real long term solutions that will guide us out of the current energy crisis."