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TIM RUSSERT AND TOM BROKAW: LEADERS OF THE PACK

"It is my sad duty to report.. that Tim Russert collapsed and died"

With these words, Tom Brokaw, former NBC News anchor and colleague and friend of Tim Russert, announced the sudden death of the NBC Bureau Chief and Moderator of "Meet the Press. "

When I think of Tim Russert I think of the little white board. The low tech visual aid that kept me on the edge of my seat during coverage of the 2000 presidential elections.

"Florida, Florida, Florida," Russert had predicted, tapping the board. "It all comes down to Florida."

While all the other networks were busy calculating votes and voting trends with walls of fancy high tech graphic tote boards, Russert and Tom Brokaw went late into the night and the next morning, keeping a simple tally of electoral votes on the little white board.

As the drama of the evening unfolded and electoral votes were counted and miscounted and counted again, Russert and Brokaw kept me on the edge of my seat.

With his little white board and down to earth manner, Russert spoke to his audience, as if to say, "listen folks, is isn't rocket science and you citizens don't need fancy and expensive electronic wizardry to understand what makes your democracy tick."

Since learning of Russert's death from a heart attack on the job, I have thought a lot about his appeal and what he means to journalism and to American politics. He is of courses, part of the
Washington establishment, having served first as a political advisor and then as NBC News Washington Bureau chief. Moving from working in politics to covering it as a journalist, was an unusual transition 20 years ago.

But if he had ties to any one party, he didn't show it. Russert played it right down the middle, as good journalists do. He was as tough on Hillary Clinton as he was on Dick Cheney.

Russert himself said that when he first landed the job as Moderator of "Meet the Press," he consulted with the original host, who advised him to "study his guests, learn everything about them, and then take the other side." And so he did and did extraordinarily well.

That's what made him a great journalist., He did his homework, studied the facts, actually read the books and held public figures accountable. In these days of brash TV talking heads spouting opinions about gossip, innuendo and mud slinging, when even a presidential candidate has to create his own website to dispel cheap political runmors, Russert rose above the fray.

The fact that he was an attorney,

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