JUNE 13 2011 MORNING SENTINEL FULL

since the new pictures have been posted, hundreds have left messages on her facebook page. > reporter: giffords is rehabbing in houston to be closer to her husband mark who's back now from his shuttle flight. so we really just don't know where she'll plateau at this point in time. this is a hidden injury which really takes months to years to fully heal and to improve. > we really don't know how she's going to do long term. > reporter: and doctors say the progress with this type of case is unpredictable. the fact that she's still recovering at the pace she is a really hopeful sign. she suffered an injury that unfortunately leaves 95% of those inflicted with it dead. > reporter: but giffords' aides have tempered optimism considering the severity of the congresswoman's brain injury.

JUNE 13 2011 MORNING SENTINEL FULL

> she spoke to me in full sentences, initiated those sentences instead of just responding, which is what she had only been able to do until recently. > reporter: the pictures were taken last month by a tucson photographer just a day after giffords traveled to florida to see her husband head into space on board the shuttle 'endeavour.' giffo giffords' close friend, debbie wasserman schultz, spoke to the congresswoman just last week. i think the pictures really capture the congresswoman's resilience and her spirit and her determination. they feel he's taken up too much time, been too much of a distraction so they're trying to do everything they can to pressure him out even though so far that's not working.īlank range in the head less than six months ago. they don't think there's enough time to recover politically. so they're using very strong words - bizarre, sordid, indefensible, in describing his conduct to push him out. they feel they're getting no attention for that now. what to we know about that? > reporter: politically, they thought they'd gained traction on issues like medicare, and all of that has been put aside. > there's got to be a back story here in terms of why the dems are so united and not wasting time to push him out. they could even kick him out of their caucus, really exile him, make him much more difficult to be functioning here, much harder to survive and harder to serve his constituents. they could strip him of his committee assignments. they can decide together to say he should resign.

what they can do is with house members coming back, all the democrats can meet, they can take a couple of steps. you know, my name looks like beaner, bonner, boner, thank god > when you begin to go out there and ask people to vote for you, they're probably not going to vote for you if they can't say your name. > reporter: for the most part republicans have kept quiet about the scandal but during a commencement address at ohio state house speaker john boehner offered this. how do i know how many other things he's lied about? > everybody's lied at some point. meanwhile, protesters calling for his resignation have shown up in his home office in queens although polls show he's still popular in his district. despite all that democratic sources tell nbc news weiner will not make any further decisions about his political future until his pregnant wife, huma abedin, returns from an overseas diplomatic trib with her boss, secretary of state hillary clinton. police cleared weiner of the crime in that case saying, quote, there was no disclosure of criminal activity nor inappropriate contact by the congressman.

A 17-year-old high schoolgirl in delaware.

June 13 2011 morning sentinel