That may be the only pleasant surprise to come out of this mess.

Lawmakers offered Giffords a standing ovation on the House floor when she showed up for the vote.

Even Bachmann?

Nah - most of the current GOP has no class and would rather yell insults (like the "you lie" guy) than show even a modicum of respect for someone on the "other side".

aww, bipartisanship. i assume they'll be calling her a communist traitor again tomorrow.

Good on her.

Maybe it will distract a few people from the fact that we have been utterly betrayed by our elected officials again. It's a cynical publicity stunt. It makes me want to puke.

It was nice to see her - she looked frail, but present. It was a nice break from all the rest of the really truly ugly stuff that's been going on.

@6, I thought that it was a low level publicity stunt. Especially as our elected officials once again fuck over the working class. But hey look over here!!! Gabrielle is back!!!! Don't look at what we are actually doing just look at the nice "human interest" story!!

@9:

http://www.cartoonbank.com/2011/too-soon…

what a perfect metaphor for the democratic party. giffords rises off the deathbed she was put in by a lunatic right winger... and votes to fuck the american people.

BTW, she showed up unannounced, according to the AP article. A refreshing lack of grandstanding.

The American people were not completely fucked by this vote. That will be completed when a Republican is elected President because some of you will be too upset at Obama to vote.

@11 You know her shooter was just a crazy asshole right? He was not a right winger.

@13 Obama IS a Republican, are you fucking blind?

@ 13 Fuck off.

Giffords return is a genuine cause for celebration, her vote to approve this false compromise is not.

And her vote makes her, according to slow Joe Biden, a terrorist...

Only three words prevent Obama's ouster, "President Joe Biden". What a vile little man.

@17 Stop. Just stop. You are so full of shit. Fuck off and die.

The Republican party has lied so constantly, you are either being paid by them, or are so fucking stupid, that you deserve to have everything taken from you. This bill is an absolute betrayal of the American people. It is death to this country. It is death to economic recovery. It is a fake Republican solution to a problem created by Republicans on purpose that they achieved by lying to the country. Republicans threatened to destroy the American economy for the sole purpose of robbing the tax payers of the benefit of their taxes. They are worse than terrorists. They are far more successful at murdering and robbing Americans than Al Queda has ever been. So fuck you. I don't know how you look at yourself in the mirror. You cheer the murder and robbery of American seniors. You work tirelessly to rob the American workers of a livable wage. You fight with joy for the wealth of an upper class you will never be able to join. You are an idiot. Fuck off. Biden was absolutely right, and you, my friend are on the side of terrorists.

++good 9, 11 & 16

My assumption is she will be switching to the Republican Party now. She will fit right in with the teabaggers as she only has half a brain.

@13 & 18 - my immediate thoughts exactly. The Republicans have fucked us thoroughly and have managed to make it all the President and the Democrats fault, paving the way for that nutjob Texas governor to run for president and follow in the footsteps of Cheney and Rove, destroying this country.

@15, The thing most people don't want to hear. Totally true though.

I live in Arizona. Here's an excerpt from my blog, commenting on that despicable debt-ceiling deal in general:

For many Republicans, the greatest moment of the budget standoff occurred when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) arrived on the floor of the House in time to cast her vote in favor of the GOP-backed plan. Her show of support for the measure opened the way for other House Democrats to cast their votes in support as well.

Giffords was critically injured in January when gunman Jared Loughner shot her in the head while at a meeting with supporters in Tucson.

Asked whether she was conscious of any trace of irony in casting her vote after receiving millions of dollars in medical care with the taxpayers footing the bill — while hundreds of thousands of those same Americans would have been unable to afford the healthcare she was given, and thus survive similar injuries, had they received them — Giffords refused to comment.

“See?” Boehner said. “All it really takes to get anyone to vote for a GOP plan is traumatic brain injury.”

Don't get me wrong here. I'm glad she's doing well. But everything that happened yesterday and today is a perfect capsule example of just how disconnected the fed is from the will of the people.

@18

Wow, I hope you can keep your meds under Obamacare.