Gabby Giffords seeks to achieve closure on 2011 shooting by helping to elect aide to her Congressional seat

Courtesy of CBS News:  

Roughly one year earlier, Giffords was one of 19 people shot at a "Congress at your corner" event that she was hosting in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson. Six people died in the attack, in which Giffords was shot in the head; she left Congress to concentrate on her recovery, setting up today's special election to serve out the rest of her term. 

Among those shot in the attack was the 66-year-old Barber, who at the time was a Giffords aide; his campaign has argued that he will continue Giffords' work in Congress, an argument amplified by Giffords appearance at a campaign event for Barber over the weekend. 

 Giffords said little at the get-out-the-vote rally and concert, offering only a brief thank you, but her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, told supporters the election was "a little bit about closure." 

"This is closure on Gabby's career in Congress," he said. "It wasn't when she resigned in January." 

Giffords' decision to campaign for Barber "makes a huge difference because of her enormous popularity and her bravery in dealing with the assassination event and all she has meant to southern Arizona," said Chip Scutari, the Republican half of bipartisan Arizona public relations firm Scutari and Cieslak, who predicts it will help drive up turnout for Barber today. 

In part because of Barber's close ties to Giffords, Republicans have sought to turn the race into a referendum on Mr. Obama. It's a strategy that makes sense in a district in which registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by more than 25,000 people, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's office. Giffords' victory over Jesse Kelly in the 2010 election was one of the narrowest in the nation, and it was a "testament to Gabby's skill and personality that she was able to win in a leaning-Republican district," said Arizona-based Democratic political consultant Barry Dill.

Turning the President into the boogeyman and then using him to smear any Democrat running  for office seems to be the methodology for the GOP, though I do not think it has muhc chance of tarnishing Giffords sterling reputation, nor those whom she endorses.

And Barber is not just an associate, or aide to Gifords, he was literally somebody who spilled blood on the same sidewalk the day that she was almost assassinated by a madman.

I think Giffords looks really, really good, but it is clear that she is still struggling to regain control of her body. and her ability to speak.  I swear it breaks my heart every time I hear her struggle to form the most rudimentary sentences.

 I have to say that I really hope that Barber gets this seat. Not just because the Dems need a solid win, but also because I know it would really get under a certain Grizzled Mama's skin.