What you have not heard? Well Tim Russert died. It is truly sad that a young man, in relative terms, died today, it is shocking. If you knew Tim personally it is probably a great loss. I am sure there were plenty of people that loved him and he might even have been a real nice guy. I am sorry I did not know him personally. I only knew him as a pundit and can only judge him on his public work. Unfortunately his public work as NBC News Bureau Chief in Washington and host of “Meet the Press,” left a lot to be desired. Like many people I am shocked by his death, but I am sorry to say, not so sorry.
The greatest blow will be to the McCain Campaign. God, Tim loved him. No matter how inane the statement, Tim let him get away with it and he loved the guy. Where will McCain find another dupe to breathlessly repeat his pabulum unquestionably?
Tim was a partisan in every sense of the word. He attacked Bill Clinton mercilessly, and Democrats in general. He almost alone and with the help of Maureen Dowd, destroyed the Al Gore Campaign and later the Kerry Campaign. Yet he never had a problem letting Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, or Dick Cheney ramble on about the non-existent WMDs as long as they wanted.
Am I a bitter partisan glad at the demise of an enemy? Well you can think what you want. I do not believe people automatically become saints because they died. He had nothing to do with that, it was very unfortunate Karma, I guess you could call it.
By the tone of the news today, all Tim Russert all the time, if you were not aware of it before, he was the most powerful person in the political life of the nation after the president. With his weekly Sunday show he set the debate for the following week. How he framed the questions or the debate mattered. He was fully aware of his power even if you were not. It is noteworthy that all the political figures in our country had nothing but praise for him. But the tip off was that nobody was more laudatory than Joe Lieberman, Americas number one neo-consersative turn coat rat-bastard. Go ahead find a nicer way to describe this scumbag Benedict Arnold.
And so Tim, sorry you died so young. It should not happen to anybody and you certainly did not deserve it. God knows there are many other people that really deserved it more than you, but as their facilitator you certainly did your part.