Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [11]
Rather than complain about having to quickly organize a COYC for this upcoming Saturday, upsetting his weekend plans, Gabe was enthusiastic, as usual. He promised to get on it right away. “It’ll be easy,” he said. “I can do it in my sleep. No problems.” Other staffers in Tucson also rose to action.
Ron and Gabe huddled and came up with a location to host the event—a Safeway supermarket in northwest Tucson. They liked that spot because the surrounding neighborhoods had a diverse group of constituents. Coincidentally, this was the same location as Gabby’s first COYC event in January 2007. The two staffers began to update her policy-paper handouts for the event.
Gabby knew she’d need to get to that memorial service on Saturday, and she liked that the Safeway wasn’t far away. In her two previous appearances at that supermarket, staffers there had been cordial and accommodating. “It’s a nice venue,” Gabby said.
After the COYC decision was made, she went to the ceremonial swearing-in photo opportunity with John Boehner. Many Democrats declined to have their photo taken with the opposition leader—where would they display it?—but Gabby respected the office of Speaker, no matter which party held the position.
She stood there in line with all the Republican representatives, and when it was her turn, she flashed that giant smile of hers. That photo would turn out to be the one most widely used by the media in the days immediately after the shooting.
That Wednesday night, Gabby had dinner with Pia and Rodd McLeod, her campaign manager. They both thought she seemed slightly melancholy. Almost all the other members of Congress were celebrating the new term by having dinner with their spouses and children. But I was in Houston, as were my girls, and Gabby wasn’t yet a mother, of course. Her staffers felt a little sorry for her: She was stuck having her celebratory meal with them.
That was the life of a hard-charging congresswoman with a high-flying husband. We’ve missed a good many moments when it would have been nice to be together.
On Thursday, January 6, Gabby and I were very busy with our respective jobs. I had a meeting with my flight directors, and then attended a class on ammonia decontamination. Two of my crew members were going to be doing a space walk on our mission to the International Space Station, and there was a likelihood they’d be sprayed with ammonia emanating from vents in the station. We had to learn the risks of that and how to decontaminate them when they came back inside.
Gabby was busy, too. Her day was filled with meetings about solar energy, missile systems, border security, and local economic issues. At one point, she went down to the House floor to participate in a Republican-led opening-week reading of the Constitution; she delivered lines from the First Amendment, which was a thrill for her. She began contemplating a letter she’d draft to Nancy Pelosi explaining why she hadn’t voted for her. She was also interviewed by several Arizona radio shows, asking about the new term. She had prepared her sound bites: “My top priorities this session, like last session, are border security, economic security, national security, and energy security. On each of these issues, we cannot succumb to partisan bickering. The challenges—and the cost of failure—are too great.”
Later that day, she and eighteen cosponsors introduced legislation that would cut her own salary and the $174,000 annual salaries of her colleagues in Congress by 5 percent. Gabby, who had authored the bill, issued a press release which stated: “If approved, it would be the first time in 78 years that members of Congress have taken a pay cut.”
Then, in the afternoon, Gabby got an OK from the Franking Commission of the Committee on House Administration, which needs to approve all mass communications from members of Congress. The commission’s