Tim Russert: TV Journalism's Intense Giant

This is not the post I intended to write today, but I could not fail to write a word or two about Tim Russert, who died yesterday from a massive heart attack.  To a news junkie like myself, Russert took on the aura of a superhero.  He asked the news makers the questions we all wanted to ask and he had the courage to insist on an answer.  There’s no one in the news business -- not Blitzer, not Brokaw, not Rather, not Gibson, not Couric – who would bore in with the razor sharp precision that Russert brought to his interviews.  If you doubt this ask John McCain, Barack Obama, or Howard Dean, all of whom I watched squirm under the intense questioning of Tim Russert. 

Russert, of course, was more than the best newsman in the business.  He was a son, a husband, and a father to people who loved him.  From his writing, we know that he put family first in his life and we can only begin empathize with their pain.  We will miss Russert the newsman, they will miss Tim Russert the man they loved.