It’s sad, and infuriating, but it was also the right thing to do, given her situation:
Giffords to step down from Congress
U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will step down from Congress this week to focus on her recovery, her staff announced Sunday.
"I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week," Giffords said in a video message.
Giffords, a third-generation Arizonan who served five years in the state Legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2006, will not seek re-election this fall.
Giffords vowed to return public service.
"I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country," she said.
(Source.) Any political assassination—or in this case, an attempt at assassination that rendered its victim significantly disabled for some time to come—is a slap in the face of democracy. As I wrote over at Patterico’s a while back:
I don’t know or particularly care what she stood for on each of the issues. She could have been for everything I am against and against everything I am for. Because to me the issue is higher than normal politics. It’s the fact that she was chosen to represent her district and as such they are entitled to the representative they have chosen. And one man has vetoed that decision, an act that is unacceptable in a Republic.
although it is unacceptable for one criminal to deny the people of Arizona their voice in Congress, it is the reality we live with. Now there is a state law on the subject of dubious constitutionality, but it is obviously the case that the House of Representatives can declare her seat vacant, requiring the Governor to call an election. So let me suggest this as a procedure. Declare the seat vacant, hold the special election and then … let Gabby run for the seat if she wants. If the people of Arizona prefer to keep her on until she is able to serve again, then we in the rest of the country can hardly complain. But they should give their opinion on the subject.
It appears now there will be a special election in a bit to determine who gets to serve out the remainder of her term, short though it is. And at least we can be spared of this:
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.
The whole thing made me throw up a little in my mouth. As I wrote at the time:
Seriously, what could be a better example of victim-status politics than that? They aren’t arguing that she should be reelected because she is the best and the brightest, or because she supports the policies you believe in. Nor are they arguing that she should be reelected in spite of being the victim of a crime. They are saying to elect her because she was the victim of a crime. Does that make any sense to you?
So at least we will be spared of that.
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