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Panel Remembers Russert

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BROKAW, ANCHOR, NBC NEWS: I'm Tom Brokaw, NBC news, and it is my sad duty to report this afternoon that my friend and colleague, Tim Russert, the moderator of "Meet the Press" and NBC's Washington Bureau Chief, collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work in the NBC News Bureau in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: That was the news today, shocking news, as Tom Brokaw took to the NBC airwaves to make that announcement that Tim Russert had had died, 58-years-old. He was at work apparently in the audio tracking booth when, at least now they believe it was a heart attack. We're waiting to hear exactly how he died, but a shock to Washington, and definitely to the NBC family.

Some observations and remembrances from Mort Kondracke, Executive Editor of "Roll Call," Jeff Birnbaum, columnist of "The Washington Post," and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, Fox News contributors all.

First, Mort, obviously shocking news.

MORT KONDRAKE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "ROLL CALL": Absolutely.

BAIER: What about Tim Russert?

KONDRAKE: He was a great journalist, one of the very best. I've always sort of looked around to see who is the best question asker in all of journalism. And for years before you were born, it was Peter Lisagore of "The Chicago Daily News," who died in 1976.

Since 1991, hands down, no question, it was Tim Russert. What he did with "Meet the Press" transformed Sunday television. He braced all his guests with what they said before, based on prodigious research. And he had a staff that would flash up on the screen--here is what you said five years ago, and how do you square with that?

And his journalism was all informed by having a political practitioner himself. He was Daniel Patrick Moynihan's first press secretary and then chief of staff, and he's the one who had the wisdom to persuade Pat Moynihan to switch from being what amounts to the first neo-con ever, strict anti-communist, into a liberal in order to preserve his political career, because Pat Moynihan might not have been reelected in New York if it had not been for the switch.

BAIER: What are your thoughts?

JEFF BIRNBAUM, COLUMNIST, "WASHINGTON POST": Tim Russert is, I think, the gold standard for interviewing political figures, without question, largely because he insisted on knowing the topic and being completely prepared. He always knew every angle going into things.

He cared about policy and the substance of things, even though he broadcast mostly about something that was much more ephemeral, politics. But he really knew the substance.

He cared about books--that is one of the things that really mattered to me--on a separate show he did for CNBC. He featured nonfiction book authors, recently including me, I'm very proud to say, and he encouraged people to think deeply about Washington, and write deeply about Washington, and rewarded people who cared about the substance of things, something that you don't often see on television.

And on top of that, he was a remarkably nice man, who, even though he did come from Democratic politics, he never showed a partisan slant. He would put people on the griddle whether they were Republicans or Democrats, and insist on getting an answer.

And yet people liked him because they saw what I knew personally, I'm happy to say, that he was just a very warm-hearted individual.

BAIER: I was talking to Chris Wallace and Brit Hume earlier, and I said Roger Ailes said earlier today that he couldn't find a picture where Tim Russert wasn't smiling. And he was always smiling.

And I took a shuttle from New York to D.C. after an election night, and he came up to me and said "How about this election?" He came out of highs shoes, and he was just talking for five minutes, like just so excited about covering this election at this time. He was an affable fun guy to be around.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: He was gregarious, always enthusiastic, an incredible passion for politics, and genuinely a good guy. I didn't know him intimately, but every time I encountered him I ended up smiling and enjoying the encounter. And everyone who met him felt that way, particularly the people who worked for him.

What he managed to do--television is such a ubiquitous medium, it is hard to imagine anybody would invent something. And as Mort indicated, he invented the interrogation.

You would think somebody would have thought it up before. He decided to use the screen to flash something that the person had said, and to make the chief witness against his guest the guest himself and his past.

And it worked in a way that, of course, everybody now has copied, and it made what he did interesting and effective, because otherwise you would ask a question that every politician is trained in dodging--that's what an interview is about, how do you deflect a question and end up on message.

But if he confronts you with something the opposite of what you're saying today, and it's on the screen, you've got to have some answer. And that's why he was a breakthrough. And he will be remembered as a kind of a genius in that way.

KONDRAKE: You often thought that of some public figure who was a shooting star has not been fully vetted until he has been through "Meet the Press" and been done by Tim Russert.

BAIER: Tim Russert will be terribly missed. Thank you very much for these remembrances.

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