The big news today is that Gabrielle Giffords asked for toast with her breakfast today, a remarkable achievement considering the severity of her injury. In a way, however, Politico tells a bigger story: how Giffords' staff has persevered and continued to serve their constituents in the midst of massive media interest and their congresswoman's struggle:

On Monday, when Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s breakfast was delivered to her Houston hospital room, she asked for something else: toast.

It might not seem like much, but one month after a failed assassin fired a bullet into her brain, such seemingly small milestones in her long recovery have helped sustain Giffords’s inner circle — family, friends and aides — as they cope with last month’s Tucson massacre by sharing in her progress and continuing to serve her constituents. Giffords is now eating three meals a day — as her husband, Mark Kelly, announced Tuesday on Facebook — and as she did Monday, speaking is the latest sign of progress.

Over the past month, her aides have been forced into one of the worst crisis management tests ever faced by a congressional office.

It’s hard to imagine any small staff dealing with such a sprawling, massive and sustained ordeal — and the staffers have done it in the absence of their leader and three of their colleagues, one of whom was killed and two of whom have not returned to work since being shot.

[Politico]