Mike O'Neal, Kansas House Speaker, Apologizes For Email Calling Michelle Obama 'Mrs. YoMama'

Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal (R-Hutchinson) apologized Thursday for forwarding an email referring to First Lady Michelle Obama as "Mrs. YoMama" and comparing her to the Grinch.

The subject line of the email reads "Twins separated at birth?" It includes side-by-side pictures of Michelle Obama and the Grinch with similarly windswept hair. According to the Lawrence Journal-World, the forwarded part of the email reads, "I'm sure you'll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacation -- at our expense, of course."

(See the image of the First Lady and the Grinch here.)

O'Neal forwarded the email to House Republicans and added the text, "Sorry, just had to forward the latest holiday message! I've had worse hair days but this is pretty funny."

He said Thursday he was sorry to those he offended, adding that he missed the text in the body of the email. He said, however, that the picture "made me laugh." Earlier his communications director defended him, saying that political cartoons are a "part of American culture."

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) recently apologized to the First Lady for saying that she had a "large posterior" and "big butt."

Marilyn Davenport, an elected member of the Orange County, Calif., Republican Central Committee, forwarded an email picturing President Barack Obama's face on the body of a baby chimpanzee in April. She was censured by the committee and apologized, but refused to resign for it.