Kansas House Speaker calls First Lady Michelle Obama ‘Mrs. YoMama’

06Jan

According to the Huffington Post, Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal apologized Thursday for forwarding an email referring to First Lady Michelle Obama as “Mrs. YoMama” and comparing her to the Grinch, and yes, he’s a republican. 

In his “holiday” e-mail, O’Neal’s subject line read, “Twins separated at birth?”  including side-by-side pictures of Michelle Obama and the Grinch with similarly windswept hair;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.” 

But wait, O’Neal didn’t just stop there, he 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.” 

Well, isn’t that so seventh grade of the “Speaker”; he has since said he was sorry to those he offended. 

OK, when are one of these people going to simply say, “I apologize, I was wrong, there’s no excuse,” instead of “I’m sorry to anyone I might have offended”?  The “Speaker” screwed up and he needs to be man enough to admit that and sincerely apologize, not issue a generic apology. 

Yeah, that’s true, political cartoons are “part of American culture”, but so is racism, and this smacks of pictures of the President with a bone through his nose, and watermelons in front of the White House; a funny picture of hair being blown everywhere is one thing, adding the phrase “YoMama” to it makes it a racist caricature and “Speaker” O’Neal should step down.  Perhaps that’s the kind of humor the “Speaker” is used to down at the local pub, but adult people – especially leaders – in polite society don’t think its funny; time to grow up Mr. “Speaker.