Fiorina: Boxer 'dressing down' military officer was 'outrageous'
(CNN) - California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina expounded on the message of her new television ad on Friday, saying her Democratic opponent's insistence that she be addressed as "senator" by a high-ranking military officer during a hearing last year was "outrageous."
"Nothing symbolizes stale, entrenched incumbency more than a senator dressing down a general for using the wrong title," Fiorina said on John King USA. "People are tired of politicians who think that the point is their job, when the point is everyone else's job."
Watch the interview here.
The incident at hand took place during a June 2009 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. While responding to a question, Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh addressed Sen. Barbara Boxer as "ma'am," which prompted her to interrupt.
"Do me a favor? Could you say 'senator' instead of 'ma'am'? It's just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it," Boxer said.
Fiorina told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King that Boxer's assertion is "symptomatic of what people are tired of in Washington and symptomatic of what people are tired of in Barbara Boxer."
A Field Poll released Friday has Boxer six points ahead of Fiorina among registered voters, 47-41 percent. A CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released two weeks ago showed Boxer with a 48-44 point lead over the former Hewlett-Packard CEO.
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Wow...just wow. You would think a woman in her position would know that "ma' am" is typically used when addressing women in the military. The General was not being disrespectful by any means.
The Senator was within her rights to make the request of the General to address her according to her proper title as it would have been just as disrespectful of her to refer to him as "Son" or "Young Man". It is called respecting the position, rank and or uniform and the General is more aware of it than non-military people. Now in defense of the General, it is generally accepted in the Military that a response to a superior officer is given as "Yes Ma'am". This could have been the Generals reason for addressing her as "Ma'am". The Senatorss request that he address her in the proper manner was also the correct thing to do.