Gillibrand: Giffords' spouse is hopeful

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, told her doctors the congresswoman who was shot in the head will be walking soon, Kelly shared with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a phone call Monday night.

"He said he told the doctors that she'll be up and walking in two weeks, just watch," Gillibrand told Newsday Tuesday. "He's very hopeful and he knows his wife is extremely strong and has great courage and spirit, and we both believe that she will recover and get through this."

Giffords and Kelly, whose hopeful words to Gillibrand are his most specific statement to become public on his wife's prognosis after Saturday's shooting, became friends with Gillibrand and her husband, Jonathan, in 2007 when the two women were up-and-comers in Washington. Both were newly elected moderate Democratic women from historically Republican House districts and were seen as ambitious politicians with their eyes on higher office.

In a 2008 story about who might be the first female president, The New York Times branded Giffords (D-Ariz.) and Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) part of "the new crop of young Democratic dragon slayers" poised to perhaps run for governors of their respective states. In their conservative districts, each espoused pro-gun philosophies, with Gillibrand earning an A rating during her House term from the National Rifle Association and Giffords touting her marksmanship with a Glock.

"There's not a lot of young women in the House; there was just a handful of us," said Gillibrand, appointed to the Senate by then-Gov. David A. Paterson in 2009. "We had a lot in common in terms of our personal lives. We had very tough districts and worked hard at them."

The two freshman congresswomen - Giffords is 40, Gillibrand 44 - who served together on the Armed Services Committee, became close, dining together with their husbands in Washington. The two couples met for dinner last week at the Matchbox pizza restaurant near Capitol Hill.

"She talked about how she went with her family to Rome and had a meaningful experience at midnight Mass at the Vatican," Gillibrand said. "It was inspiring to her and her husband and things she was hoping to do."

Giffords was shot Saturday morning outside a Tucson supermarket during a Congress on Your Corner event popularized by Gillibrand and other members of the Democratic Class of 2006. She remains hospitalized in Tucson, while six others - including a Giffords staff member and a federal judge - were killed.

Gillibrand, who last year received an F rating from the NRA for her time in the Senate, said she does not intend to curtail her public events in New York after the attempt on Giffords' life.

"The bottom line is our jobs are based on constituent services," she said. "I expect to continue to reach out to New Yorkers and do community events. . . . We all have a very heavy heart right now, but fundamentally it won't change the way we do our jobs."