Tim Russert, we hardly knew ye

I pretty much stopped watching TeeVee a few years ago. Everything, that is, except Meet the Press and SNL.

Tim Russert, the man I've spent every Sunday morning with for untold years, died today of a very sudden heart attack at 58. He was in the Washington bureau recording voiceovers for Sunday's Meet the Press when he died. It's a terrible tragedy for his family and for NBC. It's an unbearable loss for the United States politics and and for old-school journalism.

I can't believe it!

That guy understood politics in a way few others do. He always knew how to ask a question and get results. And he always seemed to be able to call an election weeks in advance. Remember when he said in 2000, "Whoever wins Florida is going to win this thing"? Everyone made fun of him with is lame-o white board when he could have had the people make him a fancy digital map. Remember how he kept circling Florida and shouting about how Florida was going to be the deciding factor?

Man, was he ever right.

He did the same thing in 2004 with Ohio. He had a sixth sense for politics -- more than anyone else on TeeVee.

He was second to none when it came to grilling politicians, really turning them on the spit and blowing on the flame. He wouldn't ever let up until he got the person to give a straight answer. The thing that always struck me about it, though, is that after the show, when they were running the credits, he would always be laughing and talking in a relaxed and friendly way with whoever he just decimated on the show.

Man, he was a class act.

I can't stop crying. How are we going to make it through this election without him? Who will help us see the politicians' true stripes now?

Tom Brokaw is hosting a special Tim Russert-retrospective edition of Meet the Press on Sunday. I'll be tuned in and weeping openly.