Gabrielle Giffords 'Lifts Up' a House in Need

There was hardly a dry eye in the House Monday when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords entered the chamber to cast a vote on debt-ceiling legislation.

"This is what we all needed," an emotional Florida Congressman Bill Posey was heard saying. "This is the uplift we all needed." Posey, of course, is a Republican, Giffords a Democrat.

Giffords' appearance nevertheless set the campaign wheels in motion in her home state of Arizona, where speculation is increasing whether she'll seek re-election next year or run for retiring Sen. Jon Kyl's U.S. Senate seat.

To Bruce Merrill, a longtime pollster in Arizona, Giffords' vote is a sign that she is capable of holding her office and under the circumstances would be so hard to beat she could try a run at a Senate seat. But she probably wouldn't do that, he said. The "physical rigors" would be too much for her in a Senate race.

"On the other hand," he said, "as a congresswoman she has a great staff in place there, obviously doing the work under her direction. It would be much easier to run for re-election."

Giffords hasn't yet talked publicly about her plans for the future. But colleagues treated her return to Washington as nothing less than triumphant, an inspiration for the whole nation.