You can tell that we’re getting down to the final days of the election because it looks as if the famous “comity of the upper chamber” is being set aside and the gloves are coming off. During an appearance on behalf of Scott Brown, John McCain reportedly took a decidedly less than flattering tone with one of his colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Republican Sen. John McCain said his colleague and New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is not “a serious member” of the Armed Services Committee, Breitbart reported.

The remarks came on the sidelines of a speech McCain made on behalf of Shaheen’s Republican opponent, Scott Brown. He said, “I don’t see her at very many of the hearings. I’ve not seen her propose any amendments or proposals that have to do with national security,” Breitbart reported.

McCain added, “I did work with her on an issue of getting the interpreters from Iraq back to the United States, but aside from that, I have not seen her really active in the committee.”

That sounds a bit out of character for McCain, but it was a particularly nasty shot to take at Shaheen. She has made a point of highlighting her work on military and veterans’ issues, going so far as to have Joe Biden stop by and buff up those specific credentials. As she ramped up for this particular campaign earlier in the year, she chose to draw attention to her efforts to combat the high unemployment rate among veterans in New Hampshire (which has apparently not changed much since then). She was also called out earlier in the campaign for not being particularly studious about making it to her committee meetings. (Though to be fair, the same charge was hurled at Brown.)

There’s only one week left of this, but I don’t expect things will get any more pleasant among the competitors in the close races.