They All Call Her ‘Gabby’
Congressman Flake echoed that sentiment:
Gabby was living proof that true tolerance is not pretending you have no differences. It’s being kind and decent to each other in spite of those differences.
Dr. Gary Thrasher, a veterinarian rancher, strongly supported her and voted for her in 2010. He describes himself as a “Goldwater Republican, about as far right as there is”:
But I believe Gabby Giffords has been the best representative we ever had. We don’t always agree with her and we let her know it. You can argue with her, talk to her, and she will always listen. I trust her.
The ranchers, all hardcore Republicans, support her because she is on the front line with them in improving border security. Before Giffords, all officials, including Republicans, never took a tour of the remote areas where border security has grown much worse.
After her 2006 election, Giffords held meetings with the ranchers, visited and camped out in some of the roughest areas where the border was wide open, and set up conference calls between the ranchers and government officials in charge of border security. The ranchers said she is constantly an advocate for tighter border controls because she sees it as a national security issue.
Steve Brophy, a Republican and president of Arizona’s Cattle Growers’ Association, presented to Giffords an award in July 2010, and explained to PJ Media,
If you want to look around for people who get it and have the ability and willingness to act on it, Gabby Giffords stands in the forefront. She gives a darn about us as people.
He also cites her efforts on pushing through the 600 million dollar emergency border security funding for additional border agents and unmanned aircraft.
Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) is impressed by Congresswoman Giffords’ efforts to reach out to Republicans on the immigration issue, noting:
She is a sharp lady. She understands that you cannot secure the border without securing the workplace. It is an approach she feels more comfortable with because it does not target the illegal immigrants. It targets the illegal employers.
As a gun owner, Giffords is a big proponent of the Second Amendment. She believes that gun ownership is a tradition that should not be denied. Although she is against the sale of semi-automatic weapons, she voted to repeal the ban on hand guns to correct the D.C. law, supported measures that would bar the Interior Department from prohibiting an individual from possessing a firearm in a national park or wildlife refuge, and is in favor of carrying a concealed weapon.
Because she believes America must free itself of dependence on Arab oil, she is an advocate of solar energy. Kristin Mayes, the former Republican chairperson of Arizona’s public utilities commission and currently the director of Arizona’s new program on law and sustainability, worked closely with Giffords on solar energy issues. Mayes and Giffords disseminated information about solar energy, co-hosted solar bus tours for the community, and worked together to make Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson the largest statewide solar powered community. According to Mayes, Representative Giffords is one of the most influential members of Congress on issues related to renewable energy, including extending tax credits.
All those interviewed felt that her accessibility in helping her constituents, including small business, veterans, and military families, is second to none. She strives to make things right and appeals to both Republicans and Democrats. Mayes summed up everyone’s feelings that “Gabby is very pragmatic and results oriented. She does not just talk the talk but also walks the walk. She is very bi-partisan. We need her back here in Arizona.”
And America needs her back on Capitol Hill.
“Although she is against the sale of semi-automatic weapons…”
That must be something of a misrepresentation. Giffords is now well known as the owner of a Glock 17, a semi-automatic weapon.
Do as I say, not…
jl
Sounds like she was exactly what this country needs more of, a true bipartisan representative, not a Democrat or Republican.
She will make a wonderful Democratic Senator fro the state of Arizona
Please don’t misunderstand me; what happened is a tragedy and we all wish for her full recovery. But reading this and the many other Giffords stories is surreal. I have lived in her district for several decades. Everyone now agrees that she is a personable woman (though they did not always say that). That, and being the rich and well-connected daughter of a Tucson tire dealer, got her elected. Even the local Democratic party doubted, in private, that she would be re-elected. She fooled them by having the very good idea to start hiring as her staffers people from the (very liberal) Tucson newspaper; as a result, her name and/or picture appeared in the paper almost every day. But as a Congresswomen she accomplished nothing and was a lockstep follower of Nancy Pelosi. The idea that she is an intelligent, capable, broad-minded, “blue-dog” Democrat is a fantasy. No one who reads sites like this one would want her as a representative; all this instant hagiography means that I’ll have no choice.
I totally agree. And, if she is so wise, did she read that abomination of a “health care bill”? And if she did, she still voted for it and we are supposed to think she is good for Congress? No thanks. This all may have created another historic first (first Jewish woman) for the Democrats but I am not buying it.
This all may have created another historic first (first Jewish woman) for the Democrats but I am not buying it.
Surely not! Two names come to mind very quickly: Bella Abzug and Dianne Feinstein. Giffords may be the first Jewish woman from Arizona that is a Democrat in Congress but she is not the first Jewish woman Democrat in the US.
There is a gazillion democrats, liberals, progressives, communists etc. who are Jewish. Both male and female.
Harry and Anonymous. How well said. Anon, you beat me to it. I don’t care for her personally because she voted for Obamacare. Arizona should get rid of her for that alone….and I don’t see much influence being presed against illegal immigration either. Those tell me where she truly stands.
Gifford is, in principle, for all those political measures that, in effect, destroyed America’s financial system and her economy.
All other problems are the more or less direct result of that (leftist) self-destructive, perhaps deliberately, socio-political strategy.
One can blather about securing the border to the end of our “sh***y” lives but if one doesn’t have the money to do so that blather is just one more empty blather.
Thanks to the policies of those like Gifford, the American Congress will have to scrap the mere 2,5 billion dollars for the new engines for F-35 (the vital ingrediens of America’s security) while maintaining the unimaginable budget deficit of 1,3 thrillion.
That is as we call: “Penny wise but pound foolish”…
As much as I wish her a speedy recovery and all the happiness in her private life, she must be described as a PARASITE IN THE SHAPE OF A BEAUTIFUL FLOWER.
P.S: My apology for my imperfect, self-taught Eglish and for intruding into American politics.
However I LOVE America and am much more compassionate about American plotics than about my own EUNUCHALIAN which I regard as even more swampy than American.
Appart from that, we don’t have SARAH PALIN.
I am really tired of hearing about this woman. She is well-paid and she voluntarily ran for political office; unfortunately, an occupational hazard of any politician is a lunatic prowling the crowd seeking mayhem. Frankly, I had never heard of this woman prior to this episode. My gripe is that many innocents were maimed or killed in this incident and we have heard precious little about them. The lives of the innocents were at least as important as Gabby’s; perhaps more important because they were not feasting off the taxpayers while voting ‘aye’ on toxic and unconstitutional legislation. I hope that the day will come when we do not have to hear anymore about this gal.
Thanks to Pajamas Media for this article on Gabrielle Giffords.
What happened on January 8, 2011, was a tragedy, for the families involved, for Gabrielle and her family and for our country. The critics will be the ones that slow down the process of recovery. Yet, thanks to the freedoms of the United States, you are able to be critics…Gabrielle will recover and hopefully will have a good quality of life. Politics have the opportunity to change and for the parties to stop fighting and striving to be top dog and to be “right” but to do what is “right” for the country. If Gabrielle returns to public service, good for her…if not, more power to her…she “took one” for the state that our country is sinking into… she was out trying to listen to her constituants, trying to keep the conversation between Washington and hard working Americans alive…As stated in the article, there is no one politician that will please any one American 100%. It is our job as Americans to convience our leaders to come together and stand on common ground…and Gabrielle is definitely an advocate of exactly that…Let’s clean it up America…let’s make it right for our children and grandchildren!
Gabrielle did not get us into the state that we are in…she is a victum of the state we are in.
Before the shooting I’d never heard of Giffords, I don’t live in Arizona so perhaps it’s not fair for me to judge her. The article says she is an advocate of solar and that we must free ourselves from our dependence on “Arab oil”. Well that’s the first warning bell. Solar energy has been around for decades and we still only get about what 2 or 3 percent of our total energy supply from solar? And “Arab oil”? We get the large majority of our oil from Mexico, Canada, Venezuela and some others. From Arab countries, not so much. Second warning bell. Did she read the healthcare bill that Nancy and Harry jammed down our throats? I think not. Does she walk hand in hand with Nancy? I think so. Third warning bell, strike three, she’s out. Sorry, I don’t place much trust in liberal democrats. She’s a nice lady? Great, wonderful, Mazel Tov, as the Hebrew saying goes. She carries a Glock? Wonderful, I’m happy she cares about the second amendment. But in the end I don’t believe she has the best interest of America in her heart.