Madame Boxer

So the latest meaningless big flop and twitch in the Conservative world is over Senator Barbara Boxer’s dressing down of a Brig General Michael Walsh who had the fortune of testifying before Congress about some minor issue that nobody will remember in a day and insisting that the General refer to her as “Senator” as opposed to “Ma’am” which is they way Military people are trained and expected to respond to Senior ranked females.

In many cases, Conservatives are blowing a gasket over the perceived slight to the General and the presumptuous snobbery of a Senator who presumes to claim in one sentence that she both has no sense of decorum or manners AND that nobody else ever had to work to become a Senator. By the by, Madame Boxer won her first Senate election when it turned out that her opponent had “gone to a strip club.” She won her second election by 10 points, by all definitions a landslide, her last by 20 percentage points. Barbara Boxer running for US Senate works about as hard as Casey Stengel managing the 1950’s Yankees.

But for the moment, Conservatives are trying to Letterman Madame Boxer for her verbal gaffe, and at the same time, missing the real issue. The fact is that in the Modern world, most etiquette experts define the term “ma’am” as unnecessary and even borderline inappropriate. I didn’t say that I agree with them, just that the people who actually set the rules say that addressing a person by title or name is preferable in 21^st Century America.

The real insult though was in how the rebuke was handed out. Brigadier Generals and Privates all understand what happened there and why Madame Boxer DOES in fact need to apologize, but not for the “ma’am” part. Meanwhile, all you folk who want to Letterman Madame Boxer, let me ask you a simple question, why was General Walsh at the hearing and what was he testifying about?

I submit to you that was far more important than Madame Boxers public nekulturny display.