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Kleeb called Kintner “an embarrassment to Nebraska, and anyone who co-sponsors his bills or asks him to speak at rallies is condoning his illegal behaviour and his offensive remarks about women.”

Ricketts said he had not seen Kintner’s retweet, but repeated his previous call for Kintner to resign because of the cybersex incident.

“It’s really up to the Legislature to manage their own people,” he said at a news conference on an unrelated topic.

Critics of Kintner have organized a rally at the Capitol next month to protest the retweet.

“How dare he say that. It’s just awful,” said Linda Anderson, chairwoman of the liberal group Progressive Nebraska, which organized the rally. “I’m surprised he’s still in office. One of those women could have been his grandmother.”

I took down the retweet as soon as I became aware that it was being misconstrued.

The rally on Feb. 2 was timed to coincide with a hearing on a Kintner-sponsored bill that would require abortion clinics to post a link on their websites to state information about fetal development and ultrasound videos. The state webpage would provide information about alternatives to abortion and a list of clinics that provide free ultrasounds.

Last year, the Nebraska Latino American Commission condemned Kintner for repeatedly using an ethnic slur during a debate over allowing driver’s licenses for certain youths brought to the country illegally.

Some were bemused and others offended by his 2013 comment to a newspaper, which asked him what he considered the biggest mystery. Kintner responded, “Women. No one understands them. They don’t even understand themselves. Books and books and books have been written about it, and no one understands it.”

Kintner, 56, was elected in 2012 to represent a largely rural and suburban district south of Omaha. He is up for re-election in 2018, and has not held any other elected office.