If it comes to this, hopefully the good people of Arizona will see through this debased attempt to elevate a shooting victim to automatic sainthood worthy of perpetual public office. I think if they can duct tape her to a pole and wheel her into congress on a two-wheel cart, they'll do it. They want their living martyr in the worst way.
If this is the new Democrat template for electoral victory, perhaps getting shot in the head will be their new version of kissing babies on the campaign trail? One could hope, couldn't one.
Dems plot to shamelessly use Gabrielle Giffords' shooting for political gainTUCSON —
Representative Gabrielle Giffords is still in the hospital, but some of her most ardent backers are so enamored of the idea of her running for the Senate that they describe the inevitable campaign commercials: the deep-voiced narrator recounting what happened to her, the images of her wounded, then recovering and speaking into the camera alongside her astronaut husband to call on Arizonans to unite.These supporters say they do not want to get too far ahead of themselves, and make clear that Ms. Giffords, who was shot in the head, is still relearning basic tasks and might emerge from the hospital with neither the same political abilities nor aspirations that she had before. And publicly, her closest aides say the only thing they care about is her health.“Our focus is on her recovery and what comes after that comes after that,” said Pia Carusone, Ms. Giffords’s chief of staff.
Despite such protestations, several of Ms. Giffords’s longtime aides are whispering behind the scenes that she just might recover in time to run for the seat that Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, is vacating next year.While it might be wishful thinking, Ms. Giffords’s noncampaign is already having a major effect on Arizona politics;
other prospective Democratic candidates say they feel compelled not to jump in unless she bows out, allowing Republicans to get a head start organizing their campaigns.
“I’m in but only if she’s not,” said one prospective Democratic candidate, who spoke of his deliberations but insisted that he not be named given the fluid nature of the race.
“A Democrat running against her would be doomed.”Ever so quietly, Ms. Giffords’s political allies are laying the groundwork just in case. Friends and allies held a fund-raiser for her on March 15 in Washington — trying to supplement her Congressional campaign war chest, which totaled about $285,000 at year’s end and could be tapped for a Senate bid. Her former campaign manager, Rodd McLeod, has been brought on staff, to fill in for an aide who is also recovering from the Jan. 8 shooting that left 6 people dead and 13 injured.
While these efforts might be normal for a member of Congress in a competitive district like hers, other Democrats see them as signs that
those around her want to keep her political options open.Ms. Giffords herself is not available to raise her own profile, so her Congressional staff does it for her, responding to constituents, issuing news releases and appearing at public events in her stead. Ms. Carusone said she expected Ms. Giffords to appear in Florida next month when her husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, lifted off for a two-week space shuttle mission.
A Democrat in her third term, Ms. Giffords had expressed interest in running for the Senate before a gunman opened fire at one of her signature “Congress on Your Corner” events here. Ms. Carusone said she informed her boss after Mr. Kyl announced his retirement and told her that her name had come up as a potential replacement. The response, Ms. Carusone said, was a smile.
With a question mark beside her name in the Senate race,
other Democratic hopefuls are working behind the scenes as carefully as they can, lining up support in case Ms. Giffords decides to stay out while taking care not to appear disrespectful to the candidate that the Democratic establishment here believes would have the best chance of winning.... [Read; the head-shot candidate the Democrat establishment believes they can use most effectively to garner the sympathy vote. ed.]
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Ms. Giffords would be the instant front-runner should she fully recover, say political consultants from both parties, who admit they are at a loss as to whether the positive but vague progress reports offered by doctors mean she will ever be her old self. Doctors at TIRR Memorial Hermann, the rehabilitation hospital where Ms. Giffords is undergoing treatment, refer questions on her condition to her Congressional staff.
A Blue Dog Democrat who regularly bucked her own party, Ms. Giffords has a track record of winning over independent and Republican voters. On top of that, she was a proven fund-raiser. With the national profile she has developed since the shooting, there is confidence in her camp that checks would flow into her coffers in sizable stacks.
“We could do no better for a candidate,” said Terry Goddard, a Democrat who lost a bid for governor last year.
“She’s beyond partisanship.”Dennis DeConcini, a Democratic senator from 1977 to 1995, agreed that Ms. Giffords would be the consensus Democrat if she ran and that her race would become a national contest given the closely divided Senate. “As long as she was able, she’d stand a very good chance,” he said.
She would no doubt benefit from sympathy she would receive as one of 19 people shot that morning. Political analysts in both parties say her rivals would face the difficult task of campaigning against her without appearing too hard-edged...
More @ NYT....
