Fiorina fiercely criticizes Boxer at GOP convention

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina delivered a blistering speech at the GOP convention in San Diego on Saturday, painting rival Sen. Barbara Boxer as a radical ideologue whose time in Washington must come to an end.

“Together we are going to defeat and we are going to put an end to her extreme, partisan 28-year-long reign in Washington, D.C.,” Fiorina told hundreds of delegates.

Fiorina mocked the senator’s longevity in office, noting that when Boxer’s political career began, a gallon of gas cost 55 cents and a stamp cost a dime.

“The No. 1 song was Barbara Streisand’s ‘The Way We Were,’” Fiorina said, then sang the first lyric: “Memories.”

“I think we what we ought to do is confine Barbara Boxer’s career to memories,” she said.

Fiorina pledged to push for term limits for Congress -- 12 years for both the House and Senate -- and said she would serve two Senate terms if elected.

The former Hewlett-Packard chief, who is frequently slammed by Democrats for laying off tens of thousands of workers and sending jobs overseas, subtly addressed that criticism.

Business “sometimes demands tough choices … unpopular decisions we wish that we could avoid but that never the less must be made,” she said. Boxer “comes from a world of government, a world where she spends other people’s money, where productivity is not measured, where results don’t seem to matter and where profit is not a factor. For four decades, she has not earned her keep by the sweat of her brow but by the toil and struggle of hardworking Americans in the private sector.”

-- Seema Mehta in San Diego