"I saw it on Russert"

That's the way I referred to Meet the Press--it wasn't "Meet the Press" to me, it was "Russert". I have missed very few episodes of Meet the Press in the last many, many years. He was rigidly dogmatic, to the left and right and center(who else was fair to Pat Buchanan?), in getting to the real nub of the matter.

He more than "covered" the news; he helped shape what it was, but not in an obtrusive or manipulative or unfair way. What are the defining statements for Cheney, if not (to Russert on MTP): "We'll be greeted as liberators" - "Saddam has reconstituted his nuclear program"? My personal belief is that he played a central role in taking down the candidacy of Mitt Romney in December 2007, not because he vindictively went after him in a partisan way (Bill O'Reilly anyone?), but because, through his sheer journalism skills and enormous preparation simply exposed the guy as a "phony" (that was the worst word that his dad, Big Russ, could say about anyone). That's what he did--he would expose you. If what he exposed about you was great, then your stock went up. If not--well, you better hope the video goes in the same warehouse as at the end of Indiana Jones.

Beyond feeling enormously saddened that a vital man would die so young in the midst of doing what he truly loved, I feel frankly worried about the hole his passing is going to create in discourse about the election (not sure Stephanopolous is up to it, Matthews a bit too wild-eyed, David Gregory is a tad too smug for my personal taste). How am I going to get the raw information to inform my thinking on civic matters without having Mr. Russert spend hours doing the homework for me and presenting it in an immediately grasp-able way? Many of my political posts were done after watching "Russert" on Sunday morning, and being so juiced there was some point I just needed to make. (See "Dead Man Talking" about Russert's devastation of Romney discussed above.)

Russert was like a great portrait photographer. At his best, through his skills, he could show you what someone really looked like. Not his view of who you are, but who you really are. If you are a beautiful person, that will show. If you are ugly, that ugliness will show. It's not like other journalists (Sean Hannity, anyone?) who can't help putting their own spin on what you look like, don't prepare and overlay their own views--like taking a Polaroid, drawing a mustasche on the print and showing the picture to you and saying: "Here, here's what this person looks like." No, just take a picture that really shows the person. Sounds simple, but getting to a point where you can really do that, reveal the subject but not reveal yourself, I can imagine is one of the hardest things to do in portrait photography. That's what Russert did journalistically.

I'm going to miss him. Enjoy this more recent sample of his work:



The best part of this is that Russert was going to actually let him off the hook (relatively speaking), but McCain cuts him off and "answers" the quote, shooting himself in the left foot after having put his right foot in the bear trap. It's like Russert dug the grave, then led McCain in the general direction of the hole to see if he'd fall in. He does, and when Russert peers over the edge and starts to ask McCain if he'd like a ladder to get out, McCain interrupts him and says, "Hand me that shovel, this hole isn't deep enough!"