“Our issues this Sunday…”

About four years ago, I started watching “Meet the Press” every Sunday morning. I hadn’t always done so, but after I got a TiVo I decided to record it every week, and I became a regular viewer. Since then it’s been a ritual to turn on the TV every Sunday and hear that agitated John Williams music, followed by Tim Russert’s portentous introduction to the past week’s events. And MSNBC was my network of choice during this primary season, so I’d often hear Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews turn for analysis to “NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and Moderator of Meet the Press Tim Russert,” as Homeric an epithet as “wine-dark sea” or “rosy-fingered dawn.”

It’s weird to think that he’s gone. It’s weird to think that he won’t be here for the rest of this election season. He won’t be there to analyze the vice-presidential picks, or the conventions, or the debates, or the results on election night. Never again will he grill a politician about whether he’s going to run for president even though he’s already said no four times, never again will he awkwardly read a newspaper excerpt that takes up four screens’ worth of text, screwing up every tenth word. Never again will he interview John McCain or Doris Kearns Goodwin or James Carville or Gwen Ifill. He’s just… gone.

I didn’t always like Tim Russert, but I usually did, and I always admired him. I was off from work today and watched MSNBC most of the afternoon, and commentators kept coming back to his work ethic. Saturday nights were off-limits for him, as he always had to prepare for Sunday morning. He loved what he did and was good at it, and he cared about other people. These are all qualities I want to better cultivate in myself.

Here’s part of a transcript from an SNL skit a few years ago in which Tim Russert (played by Darrell Hammond) interrogates John McCain (played by John McCain) on whether he’ll run for president in 2004.

Tim Russert: Alright. Senator, I want to read you a quote… from the Washington Post… October 2nd, 1999: “I am a candidate for President of the United States.” Your word, Senator.

Sen. John McCain: Well, Tim, that’s from the last election, when I was a candidate.

Tim Russert: So, you’re flip-flopping?

Sen. John McCain: I’m not flip-flopping, Tim.

Tim Russert: So, you’re a candidate? We can definitively say, on this show, that John McCain–

Sen. John McCain: I was a candidate in 2000. I am not in 2004. I will not challenge President Bush as a leader of my party.

Tim Russert: What if President Bush does not run?

Sen. John McCain: I don’t see any reason–

Tim Russert: What if he forgets to run?

Sen. John McCain: Alright, Tim… alright, Tim…

Tim Russert: The President forgets to run for re-election… and the Republicans are without a candidate. Does John McCain then step in to fill that void?

Sen. John McCain: I would call the President, and remind him to run.

Tim Russert: So, you’re running?

Sen. John McCain: No!

I’ll miss that ol’ pumpkinhead.