Tim Russert (1950-2008)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Tim Russert died today of an apparent heart attack. He was 58.

Although I was often critical of him -- or, rather, of his work -- I respected and genuinely liked him. He was one of those indispensable figures on the American political scene. He will be greatly missed.

I wrote a lengthy (and rather critical) post on Russert last November -- see here.

Memorandum has much more reaction to his death here -- including articles at WaPo, NYT, and CNN.

WaPo's Chris Cillizza has a nice remembrance of Russert here, as does my friend Joe Gandelman here. (See also Russert's Wikipedia entry here.)

From all of us at The Reaction, on this sad day, our thoughts go out to the Russert family.