Russert’s Son Sounds a Theme of Unity at Funeral

[jefferson_dem]

June 19, 2008
Russert’s Son Sounds a Theme of Unity at Funeral
By JACQUES STEINBERG



WASHINGTON — In death, Tim Russert did on Wednesday what no living journalist has yet to accomplish this campaign season: he got Barack Obama and John McCain to sit together and talk, quietly.

Specifically, it was Mr. Russert’s son, Luke, 22, who got the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees together. He requested that they sit next to each other at his father’s funeral at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. Then, in remarks from the pulpit, he exhorted them and other politicians to “engage in spirited debate but disavow the low tactics that distract Americans from the most import issues facing our country.” At the end of the service, the two candidates embraced.

“Five months from now,” Luke Russert said a few hours later, “I wanted them to remember that this occasion brought them together.”

While that moment occurred at a private gathering, Tim Russert, who died suddenly of a heart attack on Friday, was honored later at a memorial service at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Acts that felt like an enormously special edition of the program he moderated, “Meet the Press.”

Televised live on MSNBC beginning at 4 p.m., the 90-minute memorial featured a collection of politicians, journalists and news executives who could not otherwise be found under the same roof. Former President Bill Clinton sat between his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state serving in his successor’s administration. Nearby were Madeleine K. Albright, a secretary of state in the Clinton administration, and former Senator Bob Dole, Mr. Clinton’s Republican rival in the 1996 presidential race.

Afterward, David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s chief campaign strategist, huddled in the lobby of the Kennedy Center with Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s recently concluded race for the Democratic nomination.

Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” spoke at the memorial service, as Dan Rather, his former rival from CBS, looked on from the audience. Brian Williams, Mr. Brokaw’s successor, spoke as well, with Charles Gibson of “World News” on ABC and Katie Couric of the “CBS Evening News” also in attendance. They were joined by Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Bob Woodruff of ABC; Chris Wallace of Fox News; and many colleagues of Mr. Russert’s at NBC, including Chris Matthews, David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell, Lester Holt, Joe Scarborough and Ann Curry. (Ms. Curry and her “Today” co-hosts, Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, also attended the morning funeral; they had broadcast their program from Washington, instead of New York, so they would be on time.)

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/washington/19russert.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[democrat2thecore]

1. Luke was incredible today. He has a BRIGHT future. -nt

[roguevalley]

11. he is amazingly poised. I still haven't held a wake for my mom and

dad, who died ten months apart a year ago because I can't face it. I admire that boy and his mom. What a public ordeal to go through. I think the rainbow truly was for them. You can see things like that when they go because they want you to know they are still here. Bless them, poor things.

Edit: after looking at that picture for a while, I see a son who honored his parents in a HUGE way, a wife bereft of a lifetime of companionship- he was only 58- and a group of friends who are still shocked over the suddenness of this thing. Anyone of them could be me. My mom died in front of me without warning and my father passed away ten months before. To shit on this thread, about this boy and his mother is the saddest thing. I salute them. I have been and still am there. Thank you, OP, for a fine thread.

[Evergreen Emerald]

18. I am so sorry for your loss.

You have survived a lot of heartache.

[roguevalley]

19. thank you, love. I have to tell you, it tests all the truth you have. I

live my life the best I can and could do so in private. that is why luke impressed me so. I wish only good and peace to everyone. Life is too short. Hugs and love to you, my friend.

[Evergreen Emerald]

21. Well. You bring tears to my eyes.

I am going to go hug my daughter.

Peace to you.:hug:

[Pisces]

2. Luke has made Tim proud. He is very well spoken. The double rainbow was an incredible sign.

[Fleshdancer]

3. Oh dear Goddess....

The look on Maureen Orth's face breaks my heart. :(

[Barack_America]

8. Instant tears to my eyes.

I haven't been able to watch any of this. Not because of how I felt about him, but because of how they did. I can't stand to see people suffer like that.

[Cha]

4. Wow! How impressive..I had

read that Obama and mccain were sitting together but not that this was why!

I guess cindy mccain and elizabeth hasselbech didn't get the memo.

Thank you, Luke Russert..we shall certainly see.

[dflprincess]

5. Luke Russert is an amazing young man

But all I could think of when I heard that Obama and McCain were sitting together was an early scene from "My Fellow Americans". Jack Lemon and James Garner play two former presidents who hate each other. They're thrown together at a funeral for some dignitary and they keep mumbling insults at each other.

[ErinBerin84]

6. Luke was awesome today!

Haha, cute to think of Terry and David together too. I heard someone on tv talk about how his memorial demonstrated how that Republicans and Democrats could come together, and referenced Terry McAuliffe and Karl Rove talking together! Haha, glad we all don't have to see that coverage. Were they being serious, was Rove really there?


Oh yeah, according to Chris Matthews on the post-memorial coverage...Tim Russert's death is "proof that Obama made a HUGE MISTAKE when he said that people were bitter...because Tim was very religious, but it wasn't because he was bitter!" Right, Chris. That's EXACTLY what Obama was saying...Ha!

[Rageneau]

7. Did he run Tim's favorite video clip of Big Dog denying sex with Monica?

That clip was Tim's favorite thing in life. Nothing made him happier than to run that clip again and again and again. No epitaph to him would be complete without it -- his finest hour in journalism.

(The MSM can shovel shit at me if it wants to, but it can't make me swallow it.)

[kath]

9. Oh, so is that what inspired BartCop's graphic of Russert saying "Clinton's Cock! Clinton's Cock!"

in an endless loop?

Someone post it here, please. I don't know how to.

(Oh, NOES, Rageneau, you and I are going to upset all the extra-emotive types. And they're sooo soooo sad already...)

[JanusAscending]

10. Way to ruin one of the more HUMANE threads I've seen lately!

Do you eat with that mouth??? Just askin'...and by the way, there was not only one rainbow over the Kennedy Center after the service, but a DOUBLE one. Something I have never seen before in my life. If it made folks feel better, GREAT !! They ended the service with "Over the Rainbow" recording.

[roguevalley]

12. that was a nice event and I love that version of the song. This thread

was for a poised young man at his parent's funeral. if that can't bring a moment of truce in the war over his father then there is no hope for some.

[JuniperLea]

14. No room for reality in emo-fests, Kath

I was against the "grave dancing" as it was perceived, in the beginning, thinking he didn't deserve it any more than he deserved all the accolades.

I'm really getting sick of seeing the accolades, though. "We" forget too soon. I'm still wondering who benefits from this disingenuous display.

I feel for the family... Luke looks just like his dad when he was young. I hope he gets regular cardio check ups starting NOW. And Russert's poor wife... you can see the pain.

Russert danced with the Devil in this life... sold himself out to a murdering bunch of asswipes.

Who benefits from all this emotional blackmail?

[Drunken Irishman]

13. I hate the faces of people at funerals.

They break my heart. :(

[a la izquierda]

15. When I was a little girl, I never could understand...

why my mom was such a "sap". She cried over every freakin' little thing. I'm now a 30 year old woman, a bleeding heart liberal. I hate the media a lot of the time. I disagreed with Russert much. But I watched that brave young man yesterday, and the outpouring of grief and love and I realized why my mom cried over what I thought were random things when I was younger. They weren't random: my mom cries over things because she has a soul that truly aches for humanity when it is laid at its most vulnerable. She was not the same for weeks after 9/11, because she helped bury many friends. I guess I developed that from her.
I saw a devastated son and widow yesterday and I could not even begin to put myself in their shoes: what if that was my father I was having to say goodbye to? Or my husband? Or my mother? Call me naive, but I this past week, I have only seen the grief of people who lost someone they cherished. And I've seen fair criticism on these boards, but also outright hostility and hate and I think to myself, have none of these people ever lost anyone? I have, and watching yesterday's funeral brought back many unpleasant emotions.

The rainbows were bizarre, I might add.

[roguevalley]

20. nice post, michelle77, because it hits the nail on the head.

[SoCalDem]

16. It's beginning to "hit" her.. Until that picture, the whole thing

was probably a blur to her..but once the funeral's over, it sinks in.. She's much more fortunate than many widows who lose their husbands at a young-ish age.. She will be financially secure, and her family is raised.. She will be ok.. sad..but ok

[alphafemale]

17. He's a remarkable young man. nt