Congressional Voices Speak Out About Tucson

I'll raise your vitriol with rhetoric!
The January 8th shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in a "Congress on Your Corner"  event in Tucson, Arizona was tragic and horrific. The outpouring of emotions from regular citizens for Rep. Giffords and the other Victims of the shooting has been nothing short of spectacular, and the good emotions FAR outweigh the bad emotions........ However, the bad thoughts are still there. Once again, the most politically polarized era has decided to show in full force. Sheriff Dupnik, seem...

Giffords' progress described as 'miracle'
WASHINGTON - Wounded U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords astounded her husband, doctor and colleagues Wednesday when she opened her eyes for the first time since being shot in the head, lawmakers told reporters Thursday. “It felt like a miracle. It felt like we were watching a miracle,” Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama on board Air Force One after a memorial service in Arizona Wednesday previous evening. “Other than...

Wasserman Schultz: Palin is being defensive
Katie Couric sat down with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D- NY), Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH), Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) to talk about the aftermath of the Tucson shooting, and brought up Sarah Palin's video response. An advance look at the interview that will air on the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" tonight: Katie Couric: “What is your reaction to some of the things that were include...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz visits friend Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at Tucson hospital to witness `miracle''
WASHINGTON -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Gabrielle Giffords became fast friends when they first met. Both Jewish, both rising Democratic stars under 40 at the time, they gravitated to each other. So it wasn't a surprise that Wasserman Schultz joined President Barack Obama on his visit to the Tucson Hospital where Giffords is recovering. Shortly after the president left the room, with Wasserman Schultz at her side, Giffords opened her eyes for the first time since Saturday's shooting. Then s...

Gabrielle Giffords continues recovery with support of family, friends and nation
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes yesterday in response to encouragement from her family and friends, shortly after a visit from President Barack Obama.  Surrounded by her husband Astronaut Mark Kelly, parents, Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), the Arizona Representative opened her eyes for the first time and acknowledged she could see those around her with a wave of her hand. President Obama thrilled a memorial service crowd last ...

It's A Madhouse! A Maaaaadhouse!!
(I wrote most of this a day or so ago, so, it may be dated, but, I still stand by it. Useless Wizbang points for the first to guess where the title came from!) You'd think I would learn by now that the liberal species knows no shame. Be it lefty politicians or their boot-licking media toadies, everytime I think they couldn't possibly scrape any more sludge to suck from the bottom of the intellectual barrel, they come down with a more advanced case of mental constipation. An extra-strength dos...

Obama's Good Speech at Memorial Service for the Victims of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona
The White House site has posted the Speech that Barack Obama gave at the Memorial Service for the Victims of the Shooting in Tucson, Arizona. I listened to the Speech as well as watching the Memorial. Those who read this blog regularly know I am not a huge fan of Barack Obama nor his politics, but kudos where they are deserved, the Speech was good and Obama delivered it wonderfully. Pointing out the acts of heroism on the tragic day when Jared Lee Loughner took his gun and shot 19 people, kill...

Congresswomen describe seeing Giffords open eye
(01-13) 14:07 PST ABOARD Air Force ONE, CA (AP) -- Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' friends say it's nothing short of a miracle: Days after being shot in the head point-blank, the injured congresswoman opened an eye Wednesday for the first time. Two of her closest friends from Congress, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., were in Giffords' Tucson, Ariz., Hospital room at the time. Both had traveled to Arizona on Air Force One with President Barack Obama to atten...

Naming Names: Some Of The Liberals Who Were Overjoyed About The Tucson Shooting
Sadly, there have always been mentally disturbed people who’ve acted out violently. Sometimes it’s against their families, at their jobs, schools, places of employment — and sometimes it’s against famous targets. Most people, when they hear about events of this sort, feel sorrow for the senseless loss of innocent life. We wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people and we mourn for those affected, their families, and friends. This is how most Americans fee...

Sarah Palin haters turn to Twitter to post hate 'tweets'
Plenty of people have plenty to say about Sarah Palin , on both sides of the political aisle, but a video on YouTube is likely to get universal condemnation from both the left and the right. On YouTube, someone posted a four-minute video montage of "hate tweets" directed at Sarah Palin --vile, ugly messages hoping that she gets shot, gets Cancer and dies and so on, and often in graphic NSFW language. This, in the aftermath of the Tucson tragedy, the heated Rhetoric that followed and the presiden...

Transcript: Two Lawmakers Describe Moment Gabrielle Giffords Opened Her Eyes
The following is a transcript provided by the White House of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz described their visit to the Hospital to see Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Wednesday for a tribute to the Victims of Saturday's shootings that was led by President Obama. They are speaking to reporters aboard the presidential jet. Q So tell us what it was like in there. You were just standing around a friend of yours and -- just put it in your terms. SENATOR GILLIB...

Giffords and the Women Who Run.
One thing that stands out in Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz's (D-Fla.) account of their Hospital visit to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords yesterday -- Giffords managed to open her eyes and squeeze their hands -- is their description of the friendship the three share: REPRESENTATIVE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I think I told you the other day, I mean, there's very few of us -- SENATOR GILLIBRAND: Young women. REPRESENTATIVE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- young women who -- so we natural...

Inside the hospital room...here is what happened
Q So tell us what it was like in there. You were just standing around a friend of yours and -- just put it in your terms. SENATOR GILLIBRAND: Okay, well, I’ll go, and then you’ll go -- okay. Well, we were very excited that we were even going to have the chance of getting to visit her Hospital room. We didn’t know when we first came whether we had that opportunity. And so when we did have the chance, we were so excited to get to see her. And when we came in the room, the doctor ...

White House transcripts: Wasserman Schultz, Gillibrand, Gibbs on Giffords opening her eye
By far the most dramatic moment of President Obama's Speech at a Tucson memorial service Wednesday night was when he recounted how Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) had opened her unbandaged eye a short time earlier, urged on by her husband, Astronaut Mark Kelly, and close friends Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Hours later, flying back to Washington on Air Force One, Wasserman Schultz and Gillibrand briefed reporters on their visit with Giffords, an...

Giffords condition: Inside report from Wasserman Schultz, Gillibrand on "miracle" Transcript
WASHINGTON--Two close friends of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords provided a remarkable condition report following their visit with her at her Tuscon Hospital room. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand offer a detailed account of Giffords first movements--opening an eye and moving limbs--while talking to reporters on Air Force One returning with President Obama following the Tucson memorial service for the Victims of Saturday's massacre. Excerpt, from Gillibrand: Debbie and I start...

Giffords Opens Her Eyes
Politico reports: TUCSON, Ariz. — Simple sentiments, spoken by family and some of her closest friends in Congress, inspired the “miracle” of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ open eyes Wednesday evening. Surrounded in her Hospital room by her husband, her parents, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Arizona Democrat lifted her lids for the first time since a would-be assassin fired a bullet into through her brain Saturday during

When Giffords opened her eyes
WHEN GIFFORDS OPENED HER EYES.... President Obama strayed from his prepared remarks last night to, oddly enough, make a little news about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D-Ariz.) condition. "I have just come from the University Medical Center ... where our friend Gabby courageously fights to recover even as we speak," he said. "And I want to tell you -- her husband Mark is here and he allows me to share this with you -- right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of h...

Giffords Update
With the caveat that brain injuries are tricky and recovery is not necessarily linear, I want to pass on the very hopeful and joyful news that Rep. Gabby Giffords is, at the moment, doing very well: Shot in the head less than a week ago, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes briefly for the first time Wednesday, with her husband, her parents and other members of Congress in the room. "It was extraordinary," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who was holding Giffords' hand at the ti...

Giffords sitting up in bed, can move all limbs...
TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has passed a "major milestone" on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, doctors said Thursday. The Arizona congresswoman has been sitting up, dangling her legs on the edge of the Hospital bed and moving her limbs in response to commands. That's after she spontaneously opened her eyes during visits with her colleagues Wednesday night. She is able to lift both of her legs On Command and is yawning and starting to rub her eyes, docto...

She Was Clearly Trying to Hug Him
This needs no commentary, just contemplation. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz telling reporters on Air Force One about their visit to Gabrielle Giffords’s Hospital room, along with Giffords’s husband, Captain Mark Kelly: SENATOR GILLIBRAND: …And then you have to recognize, her eyes hadn’t opened—we didn’t know that—and so she started to struggle. And one of her eyes is covered with a bandage because it was damaged in...

Gillibrand to describe scene in Giffords hospital room
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., will be on NBC’s “Nightly News” tonight describing the scene in Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ Hospital room yesterday when the lawmaker opened her eyes for the first time since undergoing surgery for a gun shot to the head. Gillibrand and two other lawmakers — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., — were in Giffords’ Hospital room at the time. They were among a congression...

Gillibrand Describes 'Miracle' Moment with Giffords [Video]
A smiling Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was on CNN's American Morning a few hours ago, describing the scene in Gabrielle Giffords' Hospital room last night when the Arizona congresswoman opened her eyes for the first time. "We were crying, we were so excited, we had so much joy," said Gillibrand, who was visiting with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. "It was just a time that we couldn't believe we were there, to see her just show her strength like tha...

Friends say they saw miracle in Giffords
Published: Jan. 13, 2011 at 12:25 PM U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (pictured) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said they felt awed seeing Rep. Gabrielle Giffords open her eyes in her Tucson Hospital room. UPI/Ron Sachs/Pool TUCSON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said they felt awed seeing Rep. Gabrielle Giffords open her eyes in her Tucson Hospital room. Amid jokes, comments and laughter about what they'd do once Giffords, D-Ariz., returns to Wa...

When Gabby Giffords Opened Her Eyes
Mark Gifford next to Gabby's Hospital bed. Photo: Courtesy of the office of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Here's the moving account from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, via Playbook: GILLIBRAND: “We were very excited that we were even going to have the chance of getting to visit her Hospital room. … And when we came in the room, the doctor was there, her parents were there, Mark is there, and the Speaker — Speaker Pelosi and De...

Gabrielle Giffords Opened Her Eyes
​In a Speech full of heart-wrenching moments last night, President Obama went off script to describe the condition of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head on Saturday in Arizona by Jared Loughner. "Gabby opened her eyes," announced the president. "So I can tell you, she knows we are here, she knows we love her, and she knows that we are rooting for her through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey." The camera showed Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, embracing Mic...