

** FILE ** Carly Fiorina (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)UPDATED:
Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive officer, announced Wednesday she will run for a U.S. Senate seat from California.
The announcement by Mrs. Fiorina, a Republican, ends months of speculation about her plans to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer, the three-term Democratic incumbent.
“Get ready,” Mrs. Fiorina said during a town-hall-style event in Orange County. “I can take a punch, and I can throw a punch. I’m not a brawler, and I’m not a boxer, [but] I can take on Barbara Boxer.”
Her campaign so far has played out in quintessential Southern California style. The event was held at a small business named Earth Friendly Products and included a warmup soundtrack that featured the Beach Boys singing “Surfin’ USA” and the Ramones’ version of “California Sun.”
“Carlyfornia Dreamin’” and “CarlyforCal.com” are among Mrs. Fiorina’s campaign slogans.
Such backdrops were in sharp contrast to the sight of Mrs. Fiorina, a striking Texan who recently emerged from nine months of cancer treatment with her blond hair now closely cropped and gray.
“I’m happy to tell you, after having been through surgery and chemotherapy, breast cancer is behind me and I’m raring to go,” she said. “Today you are looking at a women with renewed determination to serve out the rest of her life… . After chemotherapy, [taking on] Barbara Boxer doesn’t look so scary.”
Mrs. Fiorina, 55, would need to win a June primary before facing Mrs. Boxer. The only other Republican in the primary so far is state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a businessman running as the race’s only real conservative.
The 68-year-old Mrs. Boxer, chairman of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, has been a frequent target of conservatives, most recently for co-authoring the chamber’s climate-change bill.
Mrs. Fiorina attacked what she thinks is Mrs. Boxer’s modest record of success in Congress in helping California residents and for going on a book tour this summer instead of holding town-hall meetings on health care reform.
“Let’s give Barbara Boxer the chance next year to become a full-time author,” she said.
Mrs. Fiorina ran Silicon Valley-based Hewlett-Packard from 1999 until she was forced out in 2005. She was an economic adviser in 2008 in the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican.
She reportedly left Hewlett-Packard with a severance package of more than $21 million, which could make the Nov. 2010 election expensive.
Mrs. Fiorina said she would draw on her experience of guiding Hewlett-Packard through tough economic times and stuck to a conservative agenda of no tax increases and help for small businesses through tax credits and the reopening of now-frozen lines of bank credit.
View Entire Story
Joseph Weber is a congressional reporter, his first job upon coming to Washington in 1992. Mr. Weber joined The Washington Times in 2002 as a metro desk editor and ran the section for several years, working on such stories as the Virginia Tech massacre, the Supreme Court case on the District’s handgun law, the D.C. snipers and the 2008 presidential ...
By H. Leighton Steward
Fantasy replaces reality in Obama's green economy

By Meredith Somers - The Washington Times
Prosecutors in their closing arguments on Saturday portrayed George W. Huguely V as a hulking ...

By Tim Devaney - The Washington Times
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hinted Sunday that if rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ...

By David Eldridge - The Washington Times
Rep. Ron Paul, in an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said he ...
Independent voices from the TWT Communities

First over-the-counter column approved for fast and effective relief from even your worst media-induced headache.

History doesn't have to be grim; there is a lot to be learned from the pages of time.