We'll Miss Him Acutely

I didn't hear about Tim Russert's passing until Bill mentioned it last night around 6 p.m. My response was: "Tim Russert? I can't live without Tim Russert!" Unfortunately I had just started watching his TV show Meet the Press (the longest running TV show so far) because I had just gotten interested in politics again after the dreadful years of the Reagans, the Bushes, and the Clintons (I never trusted Bill's zipper from Arkansas days and it turned out that he did embarrass the Democratic Party, in my humble opinion). But, I was very familiar with Tim because he was also on TV, hosting presidential debates, and doing political analysis. It didn't take long to figure out that this fellow boomer (2 yrs. younger than me) was the best. Here is the email I sent my sons last night:

Dear Sons, You have probably heard that Tim Russert, Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News, died suddenly today of a massive coronary at age 58. He was a fellow boomer who I like best of all the folks on TV – I guess because he loved politics and so do I. He was from Buffalo and loved his dad, a sanitation worker, and had recently written a book called “Big Russ and Me” – his dad is still alive. He only had one son who had just graduated from college and he and the wife and son had just gotten back celebrating that fact from a trip to Rome the night before and this happened the next a.m. I’m sure Tim was a Type A personality and blah blah blah . . . However, he was known for being tough but very well-liked. He never let his political opinions influence his work. He had been the anchor for Meet the Press on Sun. a.m. since 1991 I believe. And he hosted some of the presidential debates. Anyway, to get to the main point, he was a bright man, brighter than me I’m sure, and they said he gave his son 3 rules to live by when he went off to college and they were: 1. Work hard 2. Laugh often 3. Honor yourself (I’ll add and family to that but it could be argued that it’s implied) They also said that because he came from such humble roots, he used to say the world didn’t owe you a living and that whatever job you did (even garbage collector I guess – because he got his values from his dad), it was worth doing well. You were not entitled to anything. I think that reminds me of being the exact opposite of Bush and part of that is just the inherent pitfalls growing up as a rich kid as opposed to a poor kid who gets inspired by something or someone or maybe just his own dang good genes. But he did look like he might have had a few Philly cheesesteaks too many (his Achilles’ heel) and a piece of that nasty cholesterol broke off and got him. Anyway, when your dad told me who died today, my response was “Tim Russert??? I can’t live without Tim Russert.” For me, Tim has definitely left the building – empty. Love, Mom