Tom Zoellner, CNN OpEd: "No, Rep. Giffords should not resign"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Editor's note: Tom Zoellner is the author of the forthcoming book "A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America" (Viking/Penguin).

fords.resign/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

(CNN) -- Should Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) resign?

Professor Paul Sracic of Youngstown State University posed this provocative question in a recent CNN.com op-ed, coming down hard on the side that says, yes, she should give up her seat because she has been unable to cast a floor vote or attend committee meetings since being shot in the head at a supermarket on Jan. 8.

He is not out of line for raising the question -- serving in Congress is serious business -- but I believe he is wrong on the answer. Gabrielle Giffords should not be facing any calls for resignation right now.

Why? Several reasons. Everything we know about brain injury tells us that the period of most dramatic improvement has a window of about one year. By that measure, she isn't even halfway there.

[midnight]

1. K&R...

[ejpoeta]

2. i have a question. how many other members of congress have been ill or otherwise

unable to be at work for a long period of time and have been asked to resign? ted kennedy was sick with brain tumor. i know he went back to do key votes. not sure about anyone else. i think it is ridiculous that anyone should ask her to resign.

[baldguy]

3. How long did Strom Thurmond serve as an animated corpse before he finally died?

[GoCubsGo]

4. He died when he was 100.

He spent the last few years of his life living at Walter Reed Hospital. I think he was an animated corpse at least a decade before that. During at least his last term, his aides handled most things.

I find it highly ironic that those who are calling for Rep. Giffords to step down are of the same ilk (and likely many of the same people) who defended Sperm Thurmond for continuing to hold office despite being ill and senile. But, hey. He could still do push-ups when he was 98, so that showed how he was fit to serve. :sarcasm:

[GoCubsGo]

5. Another reason Zoellner doesn't mention....

What better a representative for people with catastrophic injuries and handicaps. There really isn't anyone in Congress like that. And, I think she would open the eyes of at least some of her colleagues who are in dire need of an eye-opening when it comes to the needs of this segment of our society. If she is willing and capable, and if the majority of her constituents want her to stay on, then the naysayer need to shut the hell up.