I agree, but then I'm not a senator. She probably feels she's earned the title. Why would it be not correct to want to be called by a title one feels one has earned?
I'm sure it's not incorrect, but, apparently, at least somebody thinks the senator from California made a political misstep to make an issue of it.
Most people I know who have a doctorate want to be called 'doctor'. It would be as if a woman doctor stopped someone and asked them to call her doctor. It happens in college.
Sure enough, but even that can vary. When I was in graduate school, the professors in my department felt it was ... hmmm ... I guess
parvenu would be the appropriate word ... to be addressed as
Doctor. It was just
assumed that if you were teaching where they were teaching, you had a Ph.D.
Plus it's psychological. In customer service, you get more respect from a customer if you say something like
"Hello, my name is Ms. Vanderlaan, how can I help you?"
than if you say
"Hello, my name is Sherri, how can I help you?"
Sure enough, but I doubt this applies in the case of the general and the senator. Of course, if Senator Boxer needs the reinforcement of being addressed as Senator, then I think she may have more issues than how General Walsh addressed her.