Sunday, January 9, 2011

Gabrielle Giffords and Political Courage

I have little to add to the ongoing discussions about the horrible events that occurred in Tucson yesterday. I would strongly encourage everyone to read James Fallows' piece on political shootings. I assume we'll learn more in the coming days and weeks about the shooter's motivations, but chances are, they won't turn out to be much more intelligible than they seem today.

I did want to mention one thing about Giffords -- her political courage. She represents a district that McCain won in 2008 and surely was aware that Republicans would be devoting considerable funds to defeating her. Nonetheless, she voted for TARP, cap and trade, the stimulus, and health care reform, and she still managed to retain her seat last year. That certainly merits some sort of mention.

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