Posted by
Board Certified M.D. on Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:54:48 AM
Tim Russert was a GOOD MAN as his book honoring his father is a testament to. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club and America’s Promise –Alliance for Youth. Russert's work for the Boys and Girls Club of America further points to his fine human qualities and are moving and telling as outlined below! Russert, a man who like the super athletes he so enjoyed on the gridiron and baseball diamond was as superb as the athletes he admired at interviewing world leaders, politicos, celebrities and delving into the issues of the day. On Meet the Press, Russert's probing inquiry and commanding interviewing technique reminded me of an automated Medieval Gauntlet whose swinging blades and axes were replaced by questions and comments that could maime and amputate the careers of Politicians more than the fabled instrument of a bygone era. The best New Media Talk Show Hosts on Mondays would almost always highlight Russert's verbal wrestling matches spiced with intellectual full nelsons and reverses. Russert's tough but repsectful grilling of his guests was always interesting and educational and worthy of commentary.
"Plotting his interviews out like chess matches, he deploys aggressive openings, subtle feints, artfully constructed traps, and lightning offenses to crack the politicians' phony veneer and reveal the genuine veneer beneath," wrote Jack Shafer for Slate.
The most respected Political Journalist of his era was also a generous Philantropist who not only gave generously of his money but of his valuable time to to the Children of America. "Well done, good and faithful servant.....enter thou into the joy of thy lord"........RIP Timothy John Russert, Jr
Tim Russert, host of the Summer Groove concert,
talks to one of the kids from Nantucket's Boys & Girls Club.
Pictures of Tim Russert at John Carroll University as a College Student. Russert was president of the Student Union at John Carroll, and a respected campus figure during a tumultuous era characterized by Vietnam War protests. He won the Robert Beaudry Man of the Year Award in his senior year and received an honorary doctorate in 1997.
TIM RUSSERT-The Washingtonian
The kids of the Boys & Girls Clubs knew they'd be winners no matter who won the presidential election. That's because Tim Russert, moderator of NBC's Meet the Press, got Washington's most partisan spouses, Republican Mary Matalin and Democrat James Carville, to bet $1,000 on the outcome. The loser had to write a check to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington.
Last year Russert encouraged Senators George Allen and Jon Corzine to make a similar bet on the air. Before that, Russert challenged the chairs of the national parties. Each bet was another win for the kids of the DC area.
Russert got involved with the clubs nine years ago, when they asked him to emcee their annual congressional dinner. But he had known about their work for years.
"My father was in a boys' club in the 1930s in south Buffalo," he says. "It's an organization where you can see firsthand results. You know you've changed someone's life."
Russert has emceed nine annual dinners and announced that he'll give $100,000 from the sales of his book Big Russ & Me to the clubs. When he won $20,000 on Jeopardy!, that check also went to the clubs.
"Last year we reached our $1-million fundraising goal and we absorbed the Metropolitan Police Boys & Girls Clubs," Russert says. "The best part is when the kids come back from college and talk about what they did. They want to come home and sponsor a kid."
"Tim brings tears to our eyes when he speaks so lovingly about his father or so painfully of the plight of our children," says Pat Shannon, president of the clubs. "He makes us laugh at his Yogi Berra stories, and he lifts us up with his donations. It doesn't get any better than Tim Russert."