McCain to Calif. voters: Fire Boxer - Darren Samuelsohn - POLITICO.

By DARREN SAMUELSOHN

10/16/10 3:53 PM EDT Updated: 10/17/10 11:09 PM EDT


SAN DIEGO — Sen. John McCain urged California voters Saturday to fire his Senate colleague Democart Barbara Boxer, calling her an extreme partisan and a threat to national security.


Appearing alongside Carly Fiorina, Boxer's GOP opponent, McCain criticized the three-term incumbent for being weak on defense issues and for voting against funding for a range of critical military operations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Sen. Boxer is the most bitterly partisan, most anti-defense senator in the United States Senate today," McCain said during the rally in Balboa Park, alongside other combat veterans and GOP activists. "And I know that because I've had the unpleasant experience of having served with her."

"Barbara Boxer wants to waive the white flag of surrender and endanger this nation's national security," the Arizona Republican added. "It's time she went back to San Francisco with Nancy Pelosi."


McCain’s visit to San Diego, with its heavy military presence, comes as Boxer's lead against Fiorina has shrunk back to the low single digits in a bitterly fought campaign. Boxer swung hard Thursday at Fiorina, digging out comments from the Republican candidate from January that she'd "absolutely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if the opportunity presented itself."


At the Republican rally, Fiorina and McCain launched a broad range of attacks against Boxer for voting to approve more than a trillion dollars in new taxes and for not doing enough to help improve the state’s economy, which is suffering through the nation’s third worst unemployment rate.


But they spent the bulk of their time hitting Boxer on military issues, saying her recent statements about helping combat veterans are only election-year pandering.

"Barbara Boxer in these last few weeks of her campaign wants people to believe she's a friend of our veterans," Fiorina said. "But she is no friend. She is no friend to the military. And that's why it's so important that we hold her accountable."

One of Boxer's campaign commercials touts her work to get the nation's first combat care center in San Diego. She also won the recent endorsement of the Veterans of Foreign Wars PAC.


But McCain, who is running for reelection to a fifth term in Arizona, told reporters there's a clear distinction between the VFW and its political arm, which he said got "caught up in the Washington inside-the-Beltway stuff."


"I'm proud of my relationship with the VFW, but the VFW PAC is disgraceful," said McCain, a former Navy pilot who was shot down over North Vietnam and held as a prisoner of war for more than five years.


Boxer's campaign sent four local veterans to the Fiorina rally to make the case for the Democrat’s work on their issues. San Diego police kept them from attending the Fiorina rally at the Veterans Memorial Center Museum.



Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin hosted her own rally Saturday in Orange County. But Fiorina and McCain, who picked Palin to be his vice presidential running mate in 2008, opted to stay clear of that event.


"The vets asked us to come," McCain told reporters here.


"We made this commitment to be here many, many months ago," Fiorina added. "And it's a commitment we need to keep. Obviously, this is a big state."


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