(NNPA)—First Lady Michelle Obama’s physical dimensions were the target of criticism by a Wisconsin Republican recently who criticized the First Lady’s Healthy Food Initiative as unwarranted government intrusion.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., issued an apology to the First Lady Dec. 22 in a handwritten note. The congressman’s spokeswoman declined to detail what the note said.
Sensenbrenner was apologizing for saying Obama has a “big butt,” Dec. 10 at a Wisconsin church bazaar, then repeating the reference to her posterior in a cellphone conversation that was overheard in a Washington area airport.
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| Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner |
“I regret my inappropriate comment and I have sent a personal note to the First Lady apologizing,” Sensenbrenner said in a statement Dec. 22.
“She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself,” Sensenbrenner was heard to say Dec. 21 in a Ronald Reagan-National Airport passenger lounge in what was described in FishBowlDC as a “very loud” cellphone conversation.
At the church bazaar the outspoken GOP lawmaker, speaking to a group of church members, criticized her initiative on healthy food and exercise, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He railed against the First Lady’s healthy foods initiative when talking about projects by other First Ladies. “And Michelle Obama, her project is obesity. And look at her big butt,” one female church member who was present during the apparently spontaneous comments told the Journal-Sentinel.
He said it is hypocritical of the First Lady to push healthy eating and exercise at the same time hamburgers and fries are served at the White House.
Sensenbrenner’s rant echoes commentary by conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh who singled out the First Lady’s physical dimensions in criticizing her for traveling the country with her message about healthy eating, encouraging grocers to locate in underserved communities and urging the reversal of the nation’s growing obesity problem in Let’s Move!, an exercise program aimed at children.
“The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn’t look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice…I’m trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you,” Limbaugh said during one show.
The congressman, who is a fan of shrimp and the cheese-flavored salty snack Cheetos, was referring to the first lady’s healthy food initiative in his remarks, the spokeswoman said. “He doesn’t think the government should be telling Americans what to eat,” a spokeswoman for Sensenbrenner told MailOnline.co/uk.
Michelle Obama’s press office didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
(Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper.)
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