Remembering Tim Russert

I never met Tim Russert, but I feel like I've lost a member of my family.

I've been in love with Tim Russert for years. He was my dream man. If I'd won a contest that would have let me eat dinner with anyone alive, it would have been Tim Russert. I've always thought he would have made me a great husband: kind, loving, and focused on family, he was also a consumate and creative professional who was dedicated to his craft. I know I could have been happy if I'd only married Tim Russert!

I am an MS-NBC addict; during the day, I watch nothing else from the time I get up in the morning until I stop work. So when MS-NBC came back from a commercial break playing that God-awful special report music, I expected that the network would report on the Afghanistan jail break that had just occured where 40 Taliban members had escaped. I mean, that's a huge story, right? When I looked up and saw Tom Brokaw, I knew the news was even worse - and indeed it was. When Brokaw reported that Tim had died, my heart stopped and my tears began. How could it even be possible that he had died?



My phone rang a few minutes later and my boyfriend, Tom, said he had some very bad news that he wanted me to hear from him first. I was crying already, so he knew that I had heard about Tim's death. It meant the world to me that my beloved boyfriend would want to break the news to me gently about the loss of someone I really loved.

I am grateful that MS-NBC has devoted all of its coverage since then to remembering Tim Russert. I can't watch enough. The world is in mourning and I need to participate. I am particularly thankful for Wolf Blitzer; when I left to visit Tom in Southern Maryland yesterday afternoon, I couldn't listen to MS-NBC because it is not on XM Radio. But CNN is, and was doing what everyone else was doing: mourning Tim Russert. Wolf Blitzer spent hours with journalists and politicians talking about the death of his greatest rival. That's real class.

I'm a but drop in an ocean of people who love and mourn Tim Russert. Politics and Washington and journalism and Buffalo and NBC and indeed the world will never be the same. God bless Tim Russert and his family. He will always be missed.