Ariz. Lawmakers to Leave Empty Seat for Giffords

WASHINGTON - Arizona's congressional delegation is leaving an empty seat on the House floor tonight for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Democrat gravely injured this month during the massacre in Tucson.

Spokesmen for several members of the delegation say the empty seat in the packed chamber will be a reminder to the nation of the price of the Jan. 8 attack, which left six people dead, Giffords with a shot to the head and 12 others wounded. The massacre sparked a national conversation about angry political rhetoric and calls for civility.

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Mr. Obama is expected to deliver a soothing speech. Some lawmakers, including Republicans and Democrats from Arizona, are planning to sit next to colleagues of the opposite party to create a visual symbol of unity.

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At the podium, Mr. Obama is expected to speak in healing to a nation and a Congress still grappling with the question of whether angry political rhetoric played any role in the mad attack not three weeks earlier.

Behind Mr. Obama: the new Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, sworn into his position second in line to the presidency less than a week before the shootings.

Many in both parties will be wearing black-and-white lapel pins, signifying the deaths of the Tucson victims and the hopes of the survivors.

The Arizona delegation will sit together, around an empty seat to signify Giffords' absence.

"It is a reminder of how we have to work to bring down crime, how we have to work to build an environment of civility where we can disagree without leading to violence," senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett said Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show.

Conservatives chafe at comments connecting political rhetoric and the Tucson tragedy. But even they are mixing it up with Democrats in an effort to build collegiality.

Through senior aides, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor late Monday invited Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to sit with him for the address.

Overhead in the gallery: faces of the tragedy.

Attending will be John and Roxanna Green, the parents of 11-year-old Dallas and the late Christina Taylor, the 9-year-old girl born on 9/11 and killed in the Tucson attack. There, too, will be Daniel Hernandez, the Giffords intern who helped clear the wounded congresswoman's airway and held her until medics arrived.

Meanwhile, the alleged gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, has pleaded not guilty in the attacks.