Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democratic congresswoman shot in Tucson seven months ago, made her first return to the House floor on Monday to cast a ‘yes’ vote on the debt ceiling deal. As David Fahrenthold and Felicia Somnez reported:

Usually, casting a vote in the House of Representatives has all the drama of a visit to the ATM. Legislators swipe a plastic ID card, punch a button, and watch a small “N” or “Y” appear alongside their name on the House’s back wall.

But on Monday, people wept to see it done.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), grievously wounded by a gunman in her home town of Tucson seven months ago, made a surprise return to the House floor Monday evening, to cheers and hugs from her colleagues.

One legislator dropped his dignity and climbed on a chair to see what the fuss was about. Another, seeing the commotion, assumed the president had arrived. But it was Giffords, with shorter hair than when she left, a bandage on her right wrist and the scars of trauma still visible on her head.

But she wore her congressional ID pin. She had come to cast a vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.

The lawmaker whose near- lethal injuries had come to echo the rancor of the political times had returned to Washington at a moment that seemed to triumph over the bitterness.

Giffords’s appearance brought lawmakers from both parties together in a manner which belied the rancorous negotiations that led to that final vote in the House Monday. As Felicia Somnez explained:

When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) returned to Congress during Monday evening’s bipartisan debt-ceiling vote, the historic moment united those on both sides of the aisle as well as on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Literally.

Vice President Biden told more than a dozen reporters crowded into a hallway off the House chamber after Giffords’s arrival Monday night that the bipartisan outpouring of joy at her return found him face-to-face on the House floor with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) — a fierce critic of President Obama and a contender for the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination.

“Here I’m hugging Gabby and Michele Bachmann,” Biden said, recounting the scene on the House floor. “Seriously! I’m being literal!”

“You hugged Michele Bachmann?” one incredulous reporter asked.

“Sure!” Biden said. “I like Michele Bachmann. For real. ... We’re all standing there around, and Michele walks up to see Gabby, because she cares about her. I mean, look. The thing that sometimes gets lost in this place — maybe I spent too much time here as a senator -- there is a basic humanity here, man. It matters between people. I know that sounds corny.”

A Bachmann spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.

While her return to the House floor was an encouraging sign of her recovery, Giffords’ political future is still uncertain. As Rachel Weiner reported:

The appearance of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) on the House floor Monday night warmed hearts. It also renewed interest in whether the congresswoman, greviously injured in a shooting this January, would be able to run for re-election in 2012.

This morning, the Democratic National Committee chairwoman said the party was readying for Giffords’ permanent return. But a spokeswoman for the congresswoman said no decision on Giffords’s political future had been made.

“We are confident that she is going to come back to help us full time,” Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on CBS’ Early Show. At the same time, the chairwoman acknowledged that her close friend “still has a long way to go in her recovery.”

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Wasserman Schultz added that Democrats were helping Giffords prepare for 2012: “We’re certainly getting her ready to make sure she can run for re-election at the point that they’re ready to decide on that.”

“As you've seen, she's got the heart of a lion, made remarkable progress,” Wasserman Schultz added. “But her supporters in Arizona and across the country, her colleagues, are making sure that she doesn't have to start from scratch when she makes that decision.”

In a brief statement, Giffords spokeswoman C.J. Karamargin rejected speculation that the congresswoman’s support for Monday’s debt deal was the launch of a 2012 campaign. “Congresswoman Giffords is focused on her recovery,” she said. “No decision has been made about 2012.”

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The battle is done, the 2012 war begins