New York's Kirsten Gillibrand was once dismissed as an undeserving political lightweight. Now, with two big legislative wins, her star is suddenly on the rise. As a colp, gray saturday after- noon fades into evening, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand-jeans, pale pink sweater, no makeup-sits tucked into a blue velvet armchair in her Capitol Hill office, trying to retain her composure as she talks through the events of the previous week. "To have something so horrific happen to someone so good and so promising," she says, blue eyes welling with tears, "it hit me very hard." The junior senator from New York has just hung up with Mark Kelly, husband of Gabrielle Giffords, the House member shot in the head in Tucson.
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