If you haven't seen, heard or heard about it, Barbara Boxer, hereinafter never referred to as "Senator" on this site, did a Scarlett O'Hara by requiring a testifying member of the Armed Forces, Brig Gen Michael Walsh to refer to her as "Senator", not "Ma'am" as military protocols require.

      The press, even friendly press, were a bit embarrassed, and laid it off to Boxer's "feistiness" (Left-wing speak for "petulence"). It was much more, however.
      I believe Ms Boxer read Vassar Bushmill's piece last night on the Alpha male, for she did exactly what a Beta does when 1) in a position of power and 2) in the presence of an Alpha-male...she cut him off at the knees as quickly as possible so as to require a kind of public, very public, genuflection to her rank. (Incidentally, The United States Senate is not in the military's direct chain of command.)
      Think back. You've seen this hundreds of times, at college, in the workplace, and always from the same sort of person...always relying (throwing the dice) on the good manners of their victims to let them get away with it. Barbara Walters and her crew on  "The View" did the same thing to Glenn Beck a few days back, and while Beck claims to have taken the high Christian road, we beg to differ. Had he seem the ambush coming (and he should have) he could have sliced and diced those broads...just like Jesus did to Satan in the Wilderness...without one single "shucky-durn" or "H-e-double-toothpicks". In ten seconds he could have turned the entire issue to be about them and their thin (sic) positions.

     It's a sad thing to have to say, but forget Republicans, forget conservatives, but to all honorable men, if you are going to appear in any public venue alongside the ruling elite, you are going to have to adopt the street vigilance of a kid on the lower East Side. Expect an ambush. Prepare for it.

     We all wish Gen Walsh had had the presence of mind to say "No...er, Ma'am" and proceed. There are a dozen ways he could have done so, and left Ms Boxer with her pantyhose down around her ankles.
     First, he would not have been in contempt of Congress had he respectfully declined (and wouldn't Boxer's comeback have been even a more printable moment)? Referring to members of Congress exclusively by that title is not required by either House/Senate rules, nor military protocol. Nor is obliging the single whim of a sitting congressperson.
     Beyond that, and depending on how far he wanted to push the envelope, (he would have first considered whether his bosses in the Pentagon would have backed him up, and/or, whether it was worth being a career-ender), he could have struck a blow for freedom and good manners. How would Sec. Gates have handled a screaming-Mimi Boxer on the phone after the exchange?
     And how about the Republicans on the committee? En masse, they could have risen and with an extemporaneous comment about the obseemly behavior of the woman from California, about-faced and walked out. Yeah, I know, don't look for that anytime soon. I'm quite sure Barbara Boxer could have brought a baby seal into the committee chamber and clubbed it to death with a baseball bat, and the GOP members would simple have looked at one another as if to ask each other whether it was OK to gag on camera. I've seen this among corporate little-leaguers man times..."What to do, what to do!!?"

     Visibly resisting this sort of pompous and aristocratic display isn't just theater. The Pompous Class expect what it seems they always get, total and complete compliance. Sure, maybe Boxer will receive a phone call from Reid later on. But a public resistance, no matter how polite, puts the onus on the offending party, especially the abject teaty-baby Boxer, but also the Dems to come up with a spur-of-the-moment Plan B retort, which they usually don't have. Or they can retreat.
     While we lament the bad manners by Ms Boxer, we regret even more the lack of any show of spine by the real defenders of the offended party (the GOP, not Gen Walsh), while institutions and honor continue to hobble down.

Bernard Chumm

    "I'm sorry, ma'am, er, Madam Senator, but I have to respectfully decline. I know full well how hard you've worked for your title, it's drilled into us daily, and while I've worked very hard as well, I fully appreciate the intellectual differences in our class.
   "It's just that we are are a simple minded lot down here among the citizen-soldiers, and I was summoned here to to answer specific questions about things that are within my expertise, limited as it is. When, as you ask, that I also remember special names all of you require, Your Lordship here, Your Grace there, Lady Bottomly, and others, it clutters this poor mind and I am unable to perform the principle task to which I am assigned. This is why the military granted all of us license to simply refer to you as gentlemen and gentle women, sirs and madams.
   "I hope you will accept my declination of you request as that from a simple soldier, just doing his duty."