Wasserman Schultz on Better Political Rhetoric: "It Starts With Us"

​Last week, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told us she was in the room when Gabrielle Giffords opened her eyes. Last night on MSNBC, she said Giffords has been making exciting improvements, including, at one point, somehow giving her husband a neck massage.

This weekend, the usually pointed congresswoman took to the Sunday talk shows a new message of thoughtful political discourse. And though she didn't reprimand anyone specifically, she cited the upcoming health-care reform repeal bill as an example of the kind of discourse she found distasteful.

On CBS' Face the Nation, after talking about the shooting, she said the new era of politeness will begin with her. She said she will "lead by example."

In this video, FTN host Bob Schieffer made a point of saying Wasserman Schultz has a history of being outspoken and, as he said, "making a point in a debate." Then, on the concept of a future with more sensitive debate, he asked her: "Do you plan to dial back your rhetoric when the Congress convenes this time?"

"I don't plan to debate my values and the principles of my constituents any less vigorously," Wasserman Schultz began, "but I think it starts with us, and we have to lead by example."

She went on to talk for nearly a minute about her hope for the future of political rhetoric:

"I think all of us need to be more careful about the words that we choose to use, including things like the title of the repeal of health-care reform. I'm glad that Speaker Boehner chose to verbalize a different title for that bill, but they, so far, have refused to actually change the title of 'Job-Killing Healthcare Repeal.' I think we need to be leaders by example, and when we do that, then hopefully we're gonna be able to push the shock jocks and others outside our process to take a page from our book. And if we have a more productive civil discourse, then we can really live up to President Obama's words and Christina Taylor Green's dreams, her expectations for our democracy."

We'll see if Wasserman Schultz, as a close friend of Giffords' -- and as a Democratic leader who will face plenty of opposition in her home state -- will stick by her promise to play vigorously but carefully.

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