Giffords breaks the mold with a classy birthday email

In Washington, lawmakers’ birthdays usually entail two of three things: an emailed fundraising appeal, a fundraising birthday party and presents, hopefully of the donation variety.

So imagine the surprise when ITK received an email appeal to mark Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s (D-Ariz.) birthday Wednesday, which encouraged visitors to send actual, genuine birthday wishes. No hard ask in sight.

This being politics, the email originated from Giffords’s campaign website, and it’s a safe bet that well-wishers who enter their email and phone numbers will hear from Giffords’s campaign team at some point.

Even so, the note stands out amid the scores of birthday money bombs so often penned in the phony voice of the candidate’s child, a la former Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), or spouse (paging Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.).

Giffords turned 41 Wednesday in a Houston rehabilitation center, where she’s recovering from a gunshot wound incurred Jan. 8.

ITK hopes Giffords had a very happy birthday.

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