Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” has died at 58.

What a stunner.

I really liked him. Didn't always agree with him, but I liked him a lot and found him to be a welcome relief from those anchors who stir up hysteria with their ego and attitude.

Sad. Almost a shock. I just didn't expect to click on View New Posts and see this at the top.

Ditto. What a loss. For politically unastute me, Russert was a presence I really respected and enjoyed.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

I'll avoid repeating myself to much...but I always felt like Tim treated his guests well and was entirely fair. I feel the political news landscape is going to be dealt a blow this year without him.

He was on the air so often this last year... almost perpetually, it seemed. It must have been an incredibly stressful run. I'm exhausted after a single live radio interview about a family move, so to be on the air, talking about complex political issues that guarantee your words will be sifted and contested, is a kind of pressure I cannot imagine. It must take a tremendous toll.

Yep. This is catastrophic. I was surpirised to know that not only did he work for both Cuomo and Moynahan, but was the guy that convinced Moynahan to go left in order to defend his Senate seat. You'd never know from his work. Heck, it would have been easy to guess that he was dependably liberal and Democrat by reason of his profession, but he pitched high hard ones to anyone he interviewed even as he treated them in a gentlemanly fashion. He never softballed a guest either. Why he was the only one, I'll never know. We could have used him this year. There is much to emulate.

He was polite, thorough, fair, a great interviewer, and above all, he clearly loved his job, and it came through every time he was on air.

Link the (closed) topic in the Politics forum.