Senator Barbara Boxer upbraids a polite general for addressing her as “Ma’am.”
“Do me a favor,” she said. “Could say senator instead of Ma’am It’s just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it, thank you.”
It may be a pet peeve of hers but a rather unclassy exchange. Subordinates tend to address generals as “general” but none that I’ve ever encountered would be offended, let alone correct someone so rudely, for calling them “sir” or “ma’am.” Indeed, a longstanding joke in military circles is for an instructor to tell his class, “You can call me Captain Smith, or you can call me by my nickname, ‘Sir.’”
I’m guessing BG Walsh had a different nickname in mind for Boxer after this exchange.
UPDATE: Craig Henry makes the obvious-in-hindsight comparison: “Barbara Boxer is Eric Cartman.”
