 I was doing today's New York State Senate power rankings when I headed over to the Buffalo News and found the devastating news: Tim Russert has died.
I had the great privilege of meeting Russert at a book signing in Buffalo. He signed a copy of the book, Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons, for me. In order to get my book signed, I waited at least an hour just to get to the table, where Russert greeted with me a smile and asked me who I wanted the book signed to. As I was waiting in line, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo walked by. He had stopped in to greet Russert at the signing. That summed up the importance of Tim Russert.
The sick irony here is that Russert died two days before Father's Day and both of his books were about fathers - Wisdom of Our Fathers is a collection of letters and stories from people who read Russert's own story about his father Big Russ in Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life. If you have both books, you know how much Russert loved his father. On the back of Wisdom of Our Fathers, there is a picture of Russert and his son Luke throwing out the first pitch at a Buffalo Bisons game.
As a western New Yorker, Russert was a Bills fan and made all of us in Western New York proud. As a Buffalo native, Russert showed us that regardless of the economic state in our region, you could make it big.
Russert was one of my idols, partly because he grew up in Buffalo and partly because I loved politics and journalism. Meeting him was one of the highlights of my life as someone who grew up not recognizing many faces of pundits or hosts, but I knew who Tim Russert was.
This is terrible news and sad news for Russert's family, friends and to fans of Russert. Russert's contributions to journalism, politics and to Buffalo will be appreciated forever.
His loss is devastating. I will miss Sunday mornings with Russert on "Meet The Press." Many people will say the same. |
