FTE "On Call" Blog

Melissa Wiginton

Vice President for Ministry Programs and Planning

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February 03, 2009

Why I Miss Tim Russert

As the political life of our country makes a sharp 90-degree turn from choosing a new president to being governed by one, we let certain civic practices rest for a while: campaigns, debates, conventions, constant polling. I am happy to let them lie and will be excited when their time comes again, but I really miss Tim Russert.

Mr. Russert—Washington Bureau Chief for NBC, 16 year host of Meet the Press, familiar commentator on MSNBC and The Today Show—died unexpectedly in June 2008. It felt like an especially cruel time for him to go. A lot of people counted on his smarts, his wisdom, and his presence as ports in the rough political seas. But even more than that, he himself loved it so.

I still wish for his commentary and tough questions on hard issues, but I miss Tim Russert most because he was one of my vocational heroes. He had found his way to the place where his gifts and opportunities meshed to enliven the common good.

In particular, I saw these marks of vocation in him:

He was really alive. If you ever watched him, you have seen the twinkle in those Irish eyes and the widening grin as he led the conversation beyond what was expected. His excitement sometimes vibrated right to the edge of what the television could contain. (I hope they put his white board from the Bush/Gore election night in the Smithsonian.)

He knew who he was and was not afraid to be known. Even though tales of Big Russ (his dad) could be a little much at times, through these I could see Russert weaving together his own story, integrating where and who he came from with who he had become and, as he talked about Luke (his son), extending his story into who he was becoming. Most poignantly, his political colleagues remarked more than one during the conventions and on election night that they missed Tim; they knew how much he would have relished these events.

He remembered that he was not working only for himself. I did not experience him as an ideologue, like a lot of political commentators these days, but rather as a person who asked real questions that pushed people in public life to talk beyond the talking points. And he did this on our behalf. No one is free of ego, but he most often used his status and power to engage difficult issues with people who could make a difference—to hold them accountable—for the sake of our common life.

Finally, his vocation held the possibility for enlarging us all. I don’t want to over-romanticize here. But something about the way he opened up the world through his curiosity, his connections and his commitments made a way for each of us to enter in and to be part of civic life.

I could always watch him and be reminded of the joy of being in vocation: being really alive; knowing who you are and not being afraid to be known; not working only for yourself; and enlarging possibility for all.

That’s why I miss Tim Russert.