Armchair Talking Head

The tributes are flowing from all across the political spectrum after the tragic passing of Tim Russert.  Russert was a giant in journalism, and he was just that: the consummate  journalist.   I can’t  begin to fathom the number of times I woke up at 9am on Sundays, from about age 10 on, to watch Meet the Press. For a burgeoning lover of politics, there could have been no better guide.  I had no idea whether I was left, right, or somewhere in between…I just knew I loved the process.  Tim Russert without a doubt was a lover of our political process.  You could see the schoolboy glee on his face as he played Electoral Vote Math in 2000 on his now famous dry-erase board.  Whether he was brokering the debate over Whitewater, Monica, Bush v. Gore, or the War on Terror, Tim Russert never played favorites.  He was always on the cutting edge, but would never succumb to the ideological hackery that most of today’s journalists suffer from.

Many who worked with Russert at NBC have lauded him as a father-like figure.  He wrote a book about fatherhood and his relationship with his own father entitled Big Russ and Me.  To those he directly influenced, he was definitely a father figure.  For me he was the father of my political upbringing.  The son of an Alabama educator and an expatriate Illinoisan (read: liberals), the fact that I was able to listen to fairly moderated debate and decide for myself to go in a 180 degree different direction is remarkable.  In large part that is due to the countless Sunday mornings that I “spent with Tim.”

In an age of journalism where Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes and the like masquerade as journalists while yelling at the top of their lungs disallowing any real discourse, the Tim Russerts of the world are few and far between.  He was “fair and balanced” if such a thing truly exists.

We’ll miss you Tim…RIP