He was a lawyer and too smart, too cautious to say anything. So he would just roll his eyes when we passed at the NBC News building on Nebraska Avenue or run into each other at parties around town. Tim Russert landed in the messy CIA leak case even before I did. Russert tragically died a year ago--too young, much beloved. I was friendly with Tim, through journalism and Pat Moynihan, and friends in no way that was particularly special except for one weird bond: We shared a legal docket and were scheduled to be put in contempt of court together.
Russert was central to the CIA leak case although he was never a recipient of the dreaded leak of Valerie Plame's identity. It was Russert's show, Meet the Press, where former Ambassador Joseph Wilson
aired his complaint that he'd been sent by the CIA to Niger to
investigate the claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy yellowcake
to make nuclear weapons. Andrea Mitchell was actually hosting that week. The big thing was this: It was Tim Russert who had that conversation
with Scooter Libby where Libby complained about what he considered
Chris Matthews biased coverage of the administration and the start of the war. It was that
conversation, which Libby later falsely told aFBI agents and a federal
grand jury that he found out about Valerie Plame's identity, from
Russert. It was a baroque, absurd lie that put Russert, the mayor of
Washington media, into the middle of the case.
For a time, Russert's
case and mine moved through the courts together until his legal team,
led by Lee Levine, a media lawyer wise enough to know the difference between defending a client and a principle, wisely found a way out of the mess. Russert
managed to give a deposition to special prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald
without having to go into contempt of court. He settled. My legal team
kept fighting. But eventually every reporter called in the case from
Bob Novak to Judy Miller to Bob Woodward wound up testifying. We all
got there eventually. Tim got there earlier.
Friends of Tim tell me that the case took a lot out of him. After all,
once he was out of legal jeopardy himself, the case against Libby
centered on his tale of his conversation with Russert. So poor Tim was center stage for the better part of four years and not in the way that he liked. What's more some of the inner workings of NBC News emerged during the case. Famously Mary Matalin had told Libby to complain to Russert about Chris Matthews. According to Libby's notes Matalin said "Tim hates Chris...." That couldn't have been easy to live with.
What I do know is that Russert was unfailingly kind to me during the whole case, sending attaboy notes and otherwise being protective, supportive and not in the goofy way that most reporters were at the time. Journalism and organized crime are probably the only two professions where pissing off a federal prosecutor is a badge of honor. Tim wasn't into grandiose First Amendment posturing. He did what he could to protect his conversaiton with Libby even though it was more viewer complaint than confidential source. Like Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, he found a way out of a thorny mess and he did so with grace and aplomb and a lot of compassion for those of us who didn't get out of the brambles so easily. There are many reasons to mourn Tim's passing but the kindnesses he showed me was one I thought worth bringing to light.
I appreciate your personal connection to the late Russert, and I'm sure he was a good guy, but this is a pretty embarrassing piece of hagiography. It motivated me to finally get a username here. If Russert were alive, would we still be talking about how our Social Security money really ought to have been in stocks the past eight years? Would he still be politely interviewing people who claimed the Clintons were murderers with had condoms as White House Christmas tree ornaments, then turning around and grilling Al Gore? Would Russert still be wishing the phone had rung on the biggest story of our time? Would he still be talking about his blue-collar roots even as nobody in the ever-insular media establishment reported on his multimillionaire digs nearby Jack Welch in Nantucket? Please. I'm sure he was a kind and decent human being, but making him into a journalistic demigod lowers the bar for the Fourth Estate (maybe we need a No Journalist Left Behind testing program?), ultimately doing a disservice to our fragile democracy, which requires someone more capable of constant vigilance when it comes to the biggest issues of our lifetimes, a little bit less obsessed with man-of-the-people posturing and political red herrings.
Denoise:
Wouldn't you feel more comfortable blogging at the Huffington Post?
desnoise- At no point did Tim Russert ever interview anyone who said that Bill Clinton had condoms on his xmas tree!
Al Gore needs to be grilled. Save the country first, Al, then worry about the baby seals, maybe then you could have beaten Bush. Your implication that Tim Russert is somehow ignoring how the other half lives just because he did allright for himself is foolhardy. He grew up poor. Not staying that way is no sin, or would you prefer Detroit to Nantucket??
Also, blogging is about reacting to the issue at hand-the CIA leak. However, I for one am glad you didn't address it. Who knows what the big bad CIA has done to hurt desnoise feelings?
Tim Russert was no demigod. But he was a good reporter because he refrained from all the unfocused hate we see in your blog.
Tim Russert was a good guy in the sense that all Irishmen are, by default, good and jolly and big-hearted. I was a neighbor of Tim's but never had more than a nodding acquaintance with him. Tim exuded generosity and concern, even as we exchanged nods in passing. But I blame Tim Russert, almost more than anybody else because of his popularity and credibility, as the one person who swayed public opinion in favor of the Iraq War. Although he was practiced in the art of diplomacy, he was outright rude towards some of his guests - his treatment of the UN Nuclear Inspector was shameful. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/the-nobel-prize-and-russe_b_9307.html
So I agree, don't canonize him.
TIm Russert's loss was a great blow to the journalistic integrity of MSM media.
Yes, he had faults. There were points during the run-up to the Iraq war where in hindsight he should have hit back harder. But I don't remember ANY media covering the breadth of the facts as he did. In better fashion than anyone outside of PBS Frontline, I might add.
I agree with the first poster--I don't like this article. Russert was truly one of a kind and I remember watching MSNBC the night he died and seeing his friends and co-workers mourn and grieve on live television. It was moving.
Godspeed.
Tim did what his corporate masters asked him to do, ambush Ron Paul, discuss nothing about his platform, and drag down his platform.
Interesting that he died shortly after.
"The big thing was this: It was Tim Russert who had that conversation with Scooter Libby where Libby complained about what he considered Chris Matthews biased coverage of the administration and the start of the war. It was that conversation, which Libby later falsely told aFBI agents and a federal grand jury that he found out about Valerie Plame's identity, from Russert."
Hopelessly poor writing. Consider another career.
But in the D.C. area, so many people work for spy agencies of various kinds (CIA, NSA) that if certain folks are neighbors or acquaintances, they might deduce such things...It's not as airtight a situation as is sometimes thought, far as I can tell -- I wouldn't mind seeing
Tim "wholesome Catholic boy" Russert tainted by this mess, anyway.
( ged online , online homeschooling and Online diploma )
Now, were it not at least in part for journalists who agreed to tell the grand jury what they knew, "Scooter" Libby might not be under indictment tonight because it's alleged he used journalists as foils when he told a false story under oath. Tim Russert, web hosting our Washington bureau chief and moderator of "Meet the Press" was part of this case, though he certainly didn't set out to be, and he is with us from Washington tonight.
And, Tim, since the indictment says that “Scooter” Libby lied about the substance of his phone call with you, what did you two discuss on that call?