Tim Russert

The news sites are filled with notices of the sudden death of Tim Russert, the NBC News journalist, dead at age 58 from an apparent heart attack. I only mention it here because Russert was one of the few television talking heads I enjoyed. He had a blue-collar, Catholic-Irish background -- his dad drove a garbage truck in their hometown of Buffalo, New York.

His principle job, besides being head of NBC's Washington bureau, was as moderator of Sunday morning's Meet the Press. I read this afternoon that most politicians feared appearing on MTP because Russert was such an aggressive questioner, was so thoroughly prepared, and held interviewees accountable for things they had done and said. Yet he always had a smile on his face -- he didn't yell, interrupt, or talk down. "He was tough but very fair," seems to be the universal sentiment.

I think I have always liked him because I have known he was an unashamed man of faith. He was a devoted Catholic and was unafraid to be public about his devotion. He was schooled in his younger years by the Jesuits in Buffalo -- the toughest, most scholarly of the Catholic orders. Some have suggested that training had a great influence on his own journalistic style in later years -- always digging, always questioning, always looking for the truth.

When I heard that he and his wife's only son is named Luke, I wondered if he was named after Luke, the author of the third New Testament Gospel account. Later, I heard a friend of his say that was indeed the case. It doesn't surprise me because Russert himself was a lot like Luke -- an investigator and questioner, always seeking the truth:

Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. (Luke 1:1-4)

Luke apparently went about investigating the life of Christ and compiling the results the same way Tim Russert prepared for his weekly outing on Meet the Press.

I heard in one interview that Russert and his wife had a saying they used with their son, Luke: "You're always loved, but never entitled." That's the blue-collar work ethic showing through -- I like it. The only advice he gave his son when he left for college was this: "Work hard, laugh a lot, and never lose your honor." I like that, too.

I've also been struck by the number of high profile journalists who have talked about how personal Russert was in their own lives -- a godfather to their children, visiting them in the hospital, remembering the names of wives and children and always inquiring about their well-being -- the kinds of things that let you know you have a friend in that person. Tim Russert apparently was that to many people -- and will apparently be sorely missed because of it.