Tim Russert: The Smile That Lit Up Journalism

But he couldn't have died. It seems impossible. Tim Russert can't be gone because he was having too good a time. He was an expert at journalism, politics and the ways of the world, yes, but he also seemed to have mastered happiness. He'd won trophies and plaques and certificates by the score, and if there were an award for getting what you want out of life, he would have won that, too. When news broke yesterday that the NBC News Washington bureau chief and moderator of "Meet the Press" had suffered a fatal heart attack, the general reaction was absolute, stupefied incredulity. It couldn't have happened -- not to him. Not to someone who so thoroughly epitomized ebullient contentment. Tim Russert, without the slightest doubt, was in love with his life and lived it with contagious esprit. He got to do what he most wanted to do, and thus did it with a seemingly unstoppable zest. But nothing is unstoppable; that might be one cruel moral of the story. Russert had the dream job he'd coveted; a marriage to journalistic superstar Maureen Orth that made them one of Washington's most glamorous media couples; and a son, Luke, who gave Russert obvious and contagious bliss. No wonder -- as more than one eulogist noted yesterday -- whenever you ran into Russert, he usually had a smile on his face, and behind that smile an eagerness to share some tender morsel of news or a topical one-liner. He was smiling the last time I saw him, just days ago -- even though we were both caught up in the infuriating bedlam of Dulles International Airport. Russert was on his way to Italy for a trip that he would cut short so he could return to Washington and prepare for this week's "Meet the Press." When he took over the program in 1991 (and it seems now as though it was always his), "Meet the Press" was all but choking on its own dignity, having long since become an institution but a decidedly stuffy one, perfunctory and at times enervated. Russert dared to personalize the show -- to mention his beloved Buffalo Bills, extend birthday wishes to his adored father, Big Russ (who has survived him), or to his son.."If it's Sunday, it's 'Meet the Press,' " the new moderator said at the show's conclusion, and if it was "Meet the Press," it was very much, absolutely and entirely, Tim Russert. Russert brought to the show his personal love of politics -- the big game -- having perfected his skills while working for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan but leaving partisanship behind once he crossed the border from participant to savvy spectator. He did it without sacrificing any of the show's credibility or gravitas. Although former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw's voice broke when he reported the news of Russert's death at 3:40 p.m. -- then joined current anchor Brian Williams for reminiscence and tribute -- the plaudits and encomiums proffered by Russert's competitors might have been even more impressive. Fox News Channel went wall-to-wall with coverage just as MSNBC was doing...From ABC News came more expressions of admiration. George Stephanopoulos, whose "This Week" also airs opposite "Meet the Press" in many markets, said, "Tim loved everything about politics and journalism because he believed in it. . . . Every day he brought Washington home to his viewers and made all of us better."..MSNBC's Keith Olbermann recalled that Russert often concluded memos to staff members with a gung-ho "Go get 'em." "He'll be missed as he was loved -- greatly," Brokaw said at the end of the bulletin on Russert's death. The sense of shock was palpable throughout the day and into the night, and making Russert the big story, out of all the news happening in the world, hardly seemed self-indulgent. After all, Russert transcended his role and job, and became an icon of trust and gusto and fair play to a degree greater than that of many of the politicians he interviewed...for "Meet the Press," but with Tim Russert absent. It's just not right that he is gone, just not right. It's an affront, an outrage, an act of cruelty -- and something that Russert never was: unfair. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061303865.html