Don't Let Life And News Cycles Continue Without Taking Time To Mourn Tim Russert

We haven't let go of Tim Russert, yet. And that's a good thing.

We burn out too quickly in today's never-ending onslaught of continuous news. Events are sliced, diced and analyzed until there's nothing left to say, and we can't wait to move on to the next headline.

So it's good for all of us to slow down this week and let NBC grieve over the loss. It's our loss, too. The host of "Meet the Press" was arguably the best political media expert on television.

At a time when too many mean-spirited, selfish showoffs are posing as political pundits, Russert stood above them all.

A robust blue-collar guy with a sharp intellect, he was decent and tough. Being fair and balanced wasn't just an empty slogan to him.

When the 58-year-old newsman died from an apparent heart attack Friday, it was a shock that rippled through the country. Tributes started Friday night and continued on NBC and MSNBC on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Sunday's "Meet the Press" resembled an intimate wake, full of affectionate storytelling. Russert's family will have a public wake today at St. Albans School in Washington, with a private funeral and memorial planned for Wednesday.

Then life and news cycles will go on.

I was on vacation, traveling through Bryson City, N.C., last week, when the news broke.

I immediately thought of the last time I interviewed Russert. It was in 2004, when he came to Tampa to moderate a debate between senatorial candidates, Democrat Betty Castor and Republican Mel Martinez.

He told me about once moderating a debate in the 1990s between then-Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles and an upstart, fresh-faced challenger, Jeb Bush.

Russert was impressed by the sly, folksy way Chiles compared himself to "an old he-coon," a savvy raccoon that "walks just before the light of day."

Russert, a Buffalo, N.Y., native, also joked about his little, white, dry-erase board becoming an unintentional "star" of Florida's botched 2000 presidential election.

On that election night, a series of voting problems in the Sunshine State made the race between former Vice President Al Gore and George W. Bush too close to call.

As the night wore on, Russert, covering the election with NBC's Tom Brokaw, went low-tech and whipped out a dry-erase board and a felt-tipped pen to tally up the results.

"The whole country must have taken some homespun comfort in it," Russert said. "My 80-year-old dad, who still critiques me every day, has a pad of white paper on his dresser for whenever he needs to work out his bills. I could hear his voice in my head that night: 'Put it down in black and white.'"

Russert said that after election night, his son, Luke, wanted the board. He sad he was "touched that his son had asked for a piece of my history" until Luke said, 'Dad, do you know what it would bring on eBay?'"

Russert used a white board again during the 2004 election between Bush and John Kerry. And this year, he probably would have used it again - or a similar one because the original is now in a museum.

Russert also told me that he felt blessed to be host of "Meet the Press," a public affairs program he remembered watching as a kid.

"I remember watching it on my mom's and dad's lap and seeing moderator Lawrence Spivak and Richard Nixon, John Kennedy and Fidel Castro," he said. "It's been on longer than any show on television, and it's a national treasure."

He recalled one wealthy guest who just couldn't answer many questions very well, and afterward, his father called to say, "Aren't you glad you weren't born rich?"

TUNE IN TONIGHT

AFI's 10 Top 10, 8 p.m., CBS

The American Film Institute counts down the 10 greatest films in 10 categories, including Westerns, science fiction, comedies and so on.

America's Got Talent,

9 p.m., NBC

Host Jerry Springer and judges David Hasselhoff, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan introduce us to singers, dancers, jugglers, yodelers, ventriloquists and all manner of "talent."