Lawmakers recall Russert memories

Lawmakers trusted Tim Russert, but they also knew they had better be prepared when facing him.

“I always knew he would ask the tough questions and wouldn’t take an easy answer,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.

{mosads}The tributes continued to come in Monday for Russert, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” who died suddenly on June 13 from a heart attack he suffered in the newsroom.

A public wake is scheduled Tuesday at the St. Albans School from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. A private funeral will be held Wednesday morning, with a memorial service at the Kennedy Center later in the day.

Former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) met Russert when Bradley was a young candidate for the U.S. Senate and Russert was an aide to then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

The trio met for dinner at a Capitol Hill restaurant that no longer exists.

“From that moment on, he was always someone I could trust,” Bradley said Monday.

Bradley recalled a more recent interview with Russert about Bradley’s Sirius radio program, which, according to Bradley, was “listened to by about 15 people.” Russert, in preparation, listened to nearly all of the show’s tapes.

“The preparation was always astonishing in some ways,” the former senator said.

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), at home in Buffalo over the weekend, witnessed a community in grief. Reynolds said he spoke with Russert about 10 days ago to discuss everything from Buffalo to national politics. “He wanted to just absorb everything that was happening,” Russert’s hometown lawmaker said.

Reynolds, who has gone on “Meet the Press” a few times, said Russert never showed him any favoritism just because the two men were from the same town. “Quite frankly, he was a pleasure to deal with,” he said, but “there are no special favors to another kid from Buffalo.”

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) appeared on Russert’s show four times and spoke with him more often as a background source.

King said going on “Meet the Press” required far more preparation than other shows. When he’d go on “Meet the Press,” he said, the green room was not a place for banter and lightheartedness. Instead, Russert’s staff would hand guests pages of notes from blogs, wires and recent articles to prepare for the interview ahead.

“When you go there, it’s like going to a cathedral,” King recalled. “You get there an hour beforehand. There is no fooling around. Most shows you go to, there is off-color banter and fooling around. No one talks in the green room. Everyone stands around and whispers and they give you all the materials that have been in the paper.”

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) went on “Meet the Press” during the scandal surrounding the racial remarks Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) made at the late Sen. Strom Thurmond’s (R-S.C.) birthday party.

On that show, Russert asked Lewis how he could forgive Lott. “I told him it’s part of my teaching, part of my belief to be able to forgive,” Lewis recalled. “I think he understood. He was a person of great faith.”