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COMMENTARY | The ABC News "20 20" special with Diane Sawyer that chronicled the struggle of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to regain her faculties after a brain injury as the result of a shooting in January was-for the most part-heart-warming and inspirational. The documentary, which also contained the first public interview with Giffords since the shooting, was ruined by a gratuitous attack on tea party opponents of health care reform and on Sarah Palin toward the end of the one-hour special. A short segment showed Giffords confronting an angry crowd of constituents at a town hall meeting. Palin was shown briefly,...

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords returned to Washington, D.C. Monday, seven months after her tragic attack to cast her vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling. Her timing couldn't be better to unveil the absolutely relentless hypocrisy of left-wing media and politics. The vicious attack on Giffords sparked a whirlwind of criticism over the violent rhetoric of the right in which the media castigated the tea party for its tone. Sarah Palin was criticized relentlessly over a map depicting crosshairs over vulnerable democrats, similar to the DNC's use of targets on Republicans. Most heinously, Giffords' attacker, Jared Loughner, was assumed by...

You just can’t make this up. Oaf Joe Biden told reporters he joked with shooting victim about “cracked heads.” Vice President Joe Biden, with a big smile on his face, walked to the House floor and said, “I came to see Gabby, that’s why I’m here.” …When Biden was asked about what he spoke with Giffords about, he joked, “She’s now a member of the cracked head club like me.”

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Crisis legislation to yank the nation past the threat of a historic financial default sped through the House Monday night, breaking weeks of deadlock. The rare moment of cooperation turned celebratory when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords strode in for the first time since she was shot in the head nearly seven months ago. The vote was 269-161, a scant day ahead of the deadline for action. But all eyes were on Giffords, who drew thunderous applause as she walked into the House chamber unannounced and cast her vote in favor of the bill. [...]

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) has just come to the U.S. House floor to cast her first vote since the shooting, in favor of the debt ceiling "deal", which has just passed. She entered via a wheelchair, but was last seen standing on her own accord after the vote completed. We wish her well. This certainly answers questions about whether she would serve or resign. Let's hope that her post-recovery career is less in line with the disgusting Raul Grijalva and her buddy Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and more in line with the people of Arizona, on SB1070 and illegal immigration.

For six months, he has been a giant in the background for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, quietly leveraging his power to help the couple rebound from devastation. His private jets, his home in River Oaks, his ranch, his media connections and even his restaurant empire have played roles in simultaneously supporting Giffords and protecting her from public view as she has pushed through her recovery, sources close to Giffords said. ...Houston restaurant tycoon Tilman Fertitta, a close friend of Giffords' husband, League City astronaut Mark Kelly, doesn't think much of his role, even as it highlights a...

(CNN) -- In the months since the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, reports about her condition have been sparse. We have learned of a follow-up surgery to repair her skull and that she was recently released from a rehabilitation hospital... ...Should the media and the public be so reluctant to demand more information? The Arizona Democrat is not just a private citizen; she is a sitting member of Congress. Do Giffords' responsibilities demand a more searching inquiry into her health? No one is asking this question because it seems moot... ...In reality, the congresswoman is not carrying out any...

Gabrielle Giffords is nowhere close to returning to Congress. And there remains real doubt about whether she ever will. That appears to be the bottom line of an article Thursday in the Arizona Republic that provides the most complete assessment yet of the wounded congresswoman’s current condition. Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman in Tucson in January. Now, six months later, she still struggles mightily to communicate, although her staff believes her comprehension skills are strong. And it remains unclear just how much damage her brain has suffered. Asked for a blunt description of Giffords’ condition, her...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Representative Gabrielle Giffords arrived in Florida for the this morning’s planned launch of the space shuttle Endeavour that will be commanded by her husband, Mark Kelly. A posting on the congresswoman’s Facebook page said she flew in on a NASA jet yesterday afternoon and got a quick fly-by of Endeavour at the pad. The Democrat from Arizona arrived with the family of Endeavour pilot Gregory Johnson. The shuttle was being fueled last night, and the weather looks good for Endeavour’s 8:56 a.m. launch. An April launch try was delayed because of electrical problems. Giffords suffered a...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was wounded last month in Tucson. Her friends, neighbors, and constituents tell Pajamas Media about the woman they know as "Gabby." Most Americans did not know who Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords was before January 8, but after the horrific events that took place on that day, all Americans, not just Arizonans, have come to recognize the congresswoman.To get a glimpse o who she is as a person and what her stand is on certain issues, Pajamas Media interviewed non-family members, many of them Republicans, who spoke highly of her.Unanimously, everyone describes her with the same multitude of adjectives:...

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords spoke for the first time since she was shot in the forehead, her spokesman said Wednesday, yet another significant milestone in her recovery from a traumatic brain injury. Giffords spoke first several days ago and is speaking "more and more," spokesman C.J. Karamargin said Wednesday. He didn't know what her first words were, but said at breakfast one morning she asked for toast. "She's working very hard and it's paying off," he told The Associated Press. "We're elated at this. We always knew Gabby is a fighter and that she's not going to let this thing...

HOUSTON – She inspired the nation with her fairy-tale recovery. Now Rep. Gabrielle Giffords must inspire herself through the ordeal of rehabilitation, and doctors say it's likely to be the hardest work she'll ever do. Just a couple of decades ago, rehab was little more than physical therapy for shuffling stroke victims and wheelchair-bound quadriplegics, a last resort after doctors had done all they could. A patient having trouble speaking — as doctors suspect Giffords might — could be given a Ouija board and asked to form words on it.

Wounded U.S. congresswoman moving all her limbs, becoming more aware of her surroundings 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, doctors said."She's becoming more...

Giffords’ Eye Opening News January 13, 2011 1:14 PM Jake Tapper President Obama’s dramatic news at last night’s memorial service in Tucson that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ has just minutes before opened her left eye for the first time since the shooting has created some confusion in light of news from doctors that Giffords “could open her eyes” on Sunday. But doctors today provided a simple explanation: Wednesday was the first time Giffords opened her eyes on her own...Snip On Wednesday evening at the memorial service, President Obama said "....Gabby opened her eyes for the first time. Gabby opened her eyes...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, all close friends of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’, were in the hospital room with the Arizona Democrat when she opened her eyes Wednesday for the first time since she was shot in the head Saturday during a rampage that killed six in Tucson, Ariz. “We had been telling her that she was inspiring the country with her courage and that we couldn’t wait to take her out to pizza and a weekend away. Then after she heard our voices and the encouragement of Mark and her parents, she...

Giffords survives the night; can open eyes January 9, 2011 By Curtis Prendergast – The bullet “traveled the entire length of the brain on the left side,” said Dr. Rhee, Chief Trauma Surgeon at the University Medical Center, at a press conference on Sunday. In terms of being shot in the head, this is “about as good as it’s going to get,” said Rhee. Giffords can open her eyes, but because she is on a ventilator she can’t speak, said Rhee.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is breathing on her own and is moving both arms, both very encouraging signs of recovery, physicians at University Medical Center in Tucson said Tuesday. In an interview, Dr. Peter Rhee, the chief of trauma at the medical center, said Giffords was moving both arms, although her left arm was more active than her right, and moving her eyes. Previously, doctors had said that she was moving only her left arm, which is controlled by the right hemisphere of her brain — the side that was not penetrated by the bullet. The fact that she was...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is "100 percent" certain to survive, said Dr. Peter Rhee, a surgeon treating her for a gunshot wound to the head. "As a physician I'm going to get into a lot of trouble for this, but her prognosis for survival is 100 percent, as far as it being short term," Rhee told Britain's Channel 4 News (watch the video below). "Hopefully she'll live to be 95 years old," said Rhee, the medical director for University Medical Center's trauma center. "What her recovery is going to do I really don't know. I'm very optimistic however that she's not...

The bullet that passed through Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' brain tore through only one hemisphere before exiting, missing the crucial parts of the brain that control most bodily and cognitive functions. The bullet entered through the back of her head, passed through the left hemisphere of her brain and exited just above her left eye, Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tucson, said Sunday at a news conference. Giffords is being kept in a medically induced coma and is not able to speak because she is intubated, but when she is periodically awakened, she is able...