Sensenbrenner sorry for 'big butt' remark

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WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he apologized to Michelle Obama Thursday after he was overheard saying the first lady has a "large posterior."

Sensenbrenner was overheard Wednesday at a lounge in Reagan National Airport outside Washington talking on his cellphone about the first lady's healthy food initiative, saying Obama "lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself," Politico reported.

Sensenbrenner was recounting a conversation he had Dec. 10 at St. Aidan's Episcopal Church in Hartford, Wis., the newspaper said.

Ann Marsh-Meigs, a 72-year-old member of the church, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sensenbrenner implied Obama's initiatives to combat childhood obesity are not serious.

"He got on the topic of first ladies and their special interests, and he said most first ladies have serious projects," Marsh-Meigs. "He implied that Michelle Obama being interested in childhood obesity was not serious, he sort of made fun of it and then he made fun of her. He said something like, 'Look at her big butt.'"

"I regret my inappropriate comment and I have sent a personal note to the first lady apologizing," Sensenbrenner said in a statement Thursday.