Tim Russert: In Memoriam (1950-2008)

As everyone knows by now, Tim Russert passed away yesterday at the relatively young age of 58. Despite being overweight, he was apparently in good health and apparently had no idea that he was going to die yesterday prior to his massive heart attack. It was truly a terrible Friday the 13th for his family. This included “Big Russ”, his father, his son, Luke, and his wife. It was also a sad day for the NBC family, especially the Washington Bureau where he was chief. It was also a sad day for anyone that watched him on Sunday mornings on “Meet the Press” or his other television appearances on NBC and MSNBC. After finishing my closings and appointments, I logged on to the Drudge report (Drudgereport.com) to check in on events yesterday. I was stunned to see the headline, “Russert Dead at NBC.” I was thinking that he was merely fired, not that he actually left this world while he was on the job at NBC. It is still hard to believe that he will not moderate “Meet the Press” tomorrow.

Tim Russert’s death leaves us with a lot of lessons and a lot to learn from. He had his priorities in order. His first priority was his faith in God. Russert was a devout Catholic faithfully attending Mass every Saturday night (of course, he had to work on Sunday). His faith had to have been the compass for the rest of his life.

Next was his family. He obviously was very close to them, especially his father and his son. He obviously worked hard on being a good family man and making his family a high priority. Russert’s sudden death reminds of the axiom, “Never go to bed angry.” Tell the people that you love that you love them; we are not guaranteed another day in this world. Make the most of the days that God gives you.

Tim Russert was an excellent political commentator and one of the best interviewers. His enthusiasm for politics and his job was clear. I did my best every week to watch “Meet the Press” every Sunday. It was clearly the best of the Sunday morning talk shows. I am not the biggest fan of NBC and its clearly liberal bias, but I rarely, if ever, saw that with Russert.

Russert did an excellent job as political commentator and interviewer. In his other appearances on NBC, not “Meet the Press”, he was a very interesting and engaged commentator. He always had a smile on his face when he was talking politics on NBC; he obviously loved his job. He always was prepared to talk about the political issue of the day and his analysis was very accurate. Two examples come to mind. This May, after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Russert declared the Democratic nomination over. I agreed with him for the most part.

Even better, on the morning of November 7, 2000, Russert declared on the “Today” show that the presidential election that day between Bush and Gore would come down to Florida. How prophetic was he on that!

Russert was by far the best interviewer of the powerful, no doubt about it. He asked the tough questions that others feared or refused to ask. When he interviewed one of the presidential candidates, “Meet the Press” was cannot miss. While being professional, he did his best to flesh out what a person was really thinking. He was even better at catching people in “flip-flops”, reversal of positions. If an interviewee would say something that contradicted an earlier statement, Tim would be there with the big screen and the quote from the previous occasion. Russert did a great job researching his guest and played the perfect role of “devil’s advocate”, interrogating the guest from the opposite perspective.

I thought about Tim Russert with great admiration when he was alive. I thought sometimes to myself, “Why do I think so highly of this guy?” I know now I was right to do so. I know this when I see the attention Russert’s death is getting on the other cable networks. Then add in the “wall to wall” all weekend tribute that is being paid to Russert on MSNBC. With the life and death of Tim Russert, we are reminded to live life to the fullest and do the best you can. You never know when your time will be up.