'Meet the Press' transcript for June 15, 2008

MS. FISCHER: And he did not want that primary season to end. He just--I mean, we would say, "OK, this is the last Tuesday night. There can't possibly be..." "No, bring it on. More, more, more, more!" you know. And, and he just--that enthusiasm that he brought to it, and he loved, he loved every minute of it. He loved every minute of it.

MR. BROKAW: There were other dimensions to Tim that a lot of people who just watched MEET THE PRESS or watched him on election coverage may not have known about. He--as Mike has indicated, he was a real baseball aficionado, loved big events, loved going to the all-star game with Mike or, or watching something on television, whether it was the Masters golf tournament. He didn't play golf, but he loved the idea of being around great athletes. And he was a real rock 'n' roll aficionado. And nothing--he was more proud of this, I think, as a college student than anything else that he did. When he was at John Carroll University in Cleveland, he brought this kind of unknown but promising rock 'n' roller to campus. He was a concert promoter. The guy's name was Bruce Springsteen. And it was--Springsteen is on tour now in Europe, and he said last night, "Tim Russert was an important, unreplaceable voice in American journalism. I watched him hold our politicians' feet to the fire on many Sunday mornings. He was always a strong voice for honesty and accountability in American government. Beyond that, he was a good father, husband and a good guy. He was a regular at many E Street Band shows, and I'm going to miss looking down and seeing that big smiling face in the crowd. Tim, God bless you. We will miss you." The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.

We'll be back after this, our only commercial interruption.

                               (Announcements)

MR. BROKAW: We're back.

Among many other great aspects of Tim Russert's life is that he shared the influences on his life with the rest of us. There was a remarkable woman by the name of Sister Lucille that he met when he was in junior high. As he put it, he was at the back of the room with spitballs and rubber bands and generally not paying as much attention as he needed to, to what was going on in the front of the room. And she went to him and said, "We need to channel those energies, Mr. Russert," and she made him the editor of the junior high newspaper. I think at St. Bonaventure, wasn't it, Tim, in, in south Buffalo? Sister Lucille, then, he shared with the rest of us. I still have a continuing correspondence with her, talked to her over the weekend. We mourned together on the telephone.

And, Maria, out in Sun Valley, Idaho, knows about Sister Lucille as well. Maria:

MS. SHRIVER: Well, I thought--I was interested, Mike was talking about Tim being educated by the Jesuits, as I was. But I think he was really formed by the nuns, as so many people of our age who went to Catholic school. I was also educated by the nuns. And I remember when I came to NBC News, the only person I knew there was you, Tom, and I remember Tim coming over and introducing himself, putting his arm around me and said, "Look it, we're Irish Catholics, educated by the nuns and the Jesuits. We're going to stick together. And one of the most important people in my life I want you to meet is Sister Lucille." And he would bring her to 30 Rock, and he would introduce her around to everybody. He would credit her with his interest in journalism. He always had me autograph books for Sister Lucille or do things for Sister Lucille. He was so occupied with her meeting everybody that he knew and making sure that everybody in his life knew her influence on him. And I thought it was such a beautiful relationship. And anybody who was educated by the nuns understood that, because the nuns always got a bad rap. And he was always trying to give a good rap to the influence of the nuns. And I, I can't think of him without thinking of Sister Lucille and his enthusiasm at introducing her around to famous people.

MR. BROKAW: And to those of us who were his friends, he was a surrogate uncle to our children, to my daughters and a godfather to, to Mike's. And, and my mother was not Mrs. Brokaw, she's Grandma Jean. I mean, she was broken up more than anyone else in our family when I called her the other day with the sad news. And I like to point out to her, when I go into her apartment, she has Tim's book on the top of the stack and not my book. So that, that tells you where the pecking order is. And Tim loves that idea, by, by the way.

Listen, not everything went perfectly here on MEET THE PRESS. One of Tim's guests was Senator Bob Kerrey, the Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient who lost a leg in Vietnam. And they had this very memorable exchange.

(Videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: But you're encouraging the president today in, in saying let the Democratic Congress negotiate.

SEN. BOB KERREY: I said...

MR. RUSSERT: Are you, are you not concerned that if you cut a deal with Republicans, President Clinton will saw your limb off?

SEN. KERREY: Oh, that's a terrible metaphor. I--since somebody's already sawed one of them off.

MR. RUSSERT: No, no, no.

(End videotape)

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: Oh.

MR. BROKAW: Lost a leg.

MR. BARNICLE: Yeah.

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: Oh.

MR. BROKAW: I think that we, you know, in the interest of the audience as well, I've always said that--and, and, and Tim handled that very well. But Tim had what I call 20/20 vision. He could see from 100 yards away a small, critical comment made about him in some newspaper or in some magazine. And he had that strong Irish gene, "Never forgive, never forget."

MR. BARNICLE: I think he--well, he wasn't, he wasn't thin-skinned, I would indicate.

MS. IFILL: Precisely.

MR. BARNICLE: He, he, he was, he was...

MR. BROKAW: Well, then how would you describe him?

MR. BARNICLE: He was, he was observant. He was very aware of everything. And Tim had a pen and a piece of paper, and he took names and numbers. And eventually, he'd cross...

MS. FISCHER: He...

MR. BARNICLE: Yeah. That number would come up in the Rolodex of--in the gun sights, and boom.

MS. IFILL: But, you know, I have to say, though, that Tim did not mind, really, being challenged. There was an episode a--last year at this time, actually, when Don Imus had his famous blowup. And he wanted to do an entire program about it. He appeared on the program a lot, he was friends with Don. But he wanted to talk about the uproar. And, and Betsy called and said, "Do you want to come and talk about it?" And I said, "I don't know if that's a good idea because what I might have to say, Tim might not like." And then Tim called and said, "No, no. You need to come and say what it is you believe." And he allowed me to come into his house and, and do this.

MR. BROKAW: All right. But we--do we have that--we have the actual tape, I think, of him.

MS. IFILL: We do? Oh, OK.

MR. BROKAW: All right. Gwen Ifill and Tim Russert after Don Imus.

(Videotape)

MS. IFILL: There's been radio silence from a, from a lot of people who've done this program, who could have spoken up and said, "I find this offensive" or "I didn't know." These people didn't speak up. Tim, we didn't hear that much from you.

(End videotape)

MS. IFILL: My point about that--after that, a lot of people said, "Oh, you spoke truth to power. You really got in Russert's grill that day." And I said to every single person, you know, "I don't know anybody who would have said, `Come on in my house and tell me that.'" And he let me do that. He encouraged Because it was OK to disagree because it taught him something he didn't know. It opened his mind, which he wanted to be, to an alternate point of view.

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: You know what's so amazing? Old Machiavelli used to say, "It's better to be feared than loved," if you're a political figure, if you want power. And the incredible thing was, he was feared by the people who came on here because they didn't want to screw up, but on the other hand he was loved. I mean, he managed to do both things, which was so rare, to have authority and love.

MS. MATALIN: He loved, he loved his friends. He never--and that's not always across the board in this town. He never left anybody. He stood up for his friends, and it wasn't that we just loved him. He loved his friends and took care of them. And unlike most of this town, which is transactional, you weren't just his friend when you were in. If you were out of office, he still called you and he still was--he just was loved because he was such a lover of people.

MR. BARNICLE: He had, he had that reservoir of loyalty that so few people have. And I would think, especially in this city where I don't live but I've always likened it to what I call elevator loyalty, if you and I are going to the sixth floor to the first floor and I'm your friend and I'm very loyal, we get out you go that way, I go that way and I'm killing you half a block away. Tim was loyal. He was loyal. You were his friend. He admired you or he liked you or whatever, he would remain loyal to you through thick and thin, through--Don, Don Imus he was loyal to Don. He understood, Gwen, and learned from that experience, as we all did.

MS. IFILL: Yes, he did.

MR. BARNICLE: But it just--and loyalty is such a rare commodity.

MR. BROKAW: Well, speaking of loyalty, we all know that Tim Russert grew up in south Buffalo, working-class family. He wrote about it with "Big Russ and Me." And even though he rose to the heights, being one of the most important journalists in America, a guy who could drive a political debate in this country, had all the good fortune that goes with the success that he had, he never forgot his Buffalo roots. This is the Buffalo News. I think it's huge testimony to how they felt about him in his hometown. And we thought we would share with you just a few of the hundreds of thousands of references to Buffalo and everything connected to Buffalo that we heard on this broadcast.

(Videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: For Big Russ, his buddies back in Buffalo who helped make this country great, for the city of Buffalo and for all the underdogs in this country and around the world, go you Buffalo Bills.

Go Sabers. Bring it home. We want the cup.

How about those Boston College Eagles? On to the Sweet 16. Go Eagles.

Go Bills, get those Skins.

Sorry about those Bills, but how about those Sabers?

St. Albans Bulldogs, 25; the Gonzaga Eagles, 20. Yesterday God was not purple, he was wearing Bulldog blue.

And hey, Buffalo Sabers, nice job. Ten in a row. Make me proud.

Go Bills. Squish the fish. Hold the e-mails, I know dolphins are mammals, but, you know, squish the fish.

If it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS. And, oh yes, go Bills.

(End videotape)

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: You know, Tom...

MR. BROKAW: He was beyond shameless about the...

MR. CARVILLE: He loved--I'm telling you Saturday night I'm watching the LSU football game, and they'd scored a touchdown, 10:30. I looked on my cell, there he is. He said, "Can you believe LSU just scored? I'm so happy for you." And I go like, "Man you got to go to sleep, you got to do the show tomorrow." If, if you were pulling for a team and you were a friend of his, he'd be for the team. You know, everybody.

MR. BROKAW: Right.

MR. CARVILLE: You know, Jacob Haskell...

MR. BARNICLE: Thursday night I'm in New York, the Celtics/Lakers game is going on, and it's close. The Celtics phenomenal comeback. I'm trying to fall asleep in a hotel room, phone rings. "Hey, buddy, do you see what's going on out there? You see the run they're putting on?"

MR. CARVILLE: It just--it never--when I talk about that, that kind of little boy, he had enthusiasm for the Bills. But if you had a team, he followed his friends teams, and the number--and the--...(unintelligible)...stadium, Jacob Haskell makes a first down and my phone rings in the middle of 92,000 people.

MR. BROKAW: Wow. he was...

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: You know, he so loved Buffalo that, even at one point when he asked me, "What are you going to do after Lincoln?" I said, "How--what can I do anything after Lincoln. I certainly can't go back to Millard Fillmore." And he said, "Now, wait. Millard Fillmore came from Buffalo. Don't say bad things about Millard Fillmore."

MS. IFILL: You know that's how I got hired here. I, I--the real reason I got my job at NBC was because I had lived for four formative years in Buffalo, New York. To heck with my...(unintelligible).

MR. BROKAW: Well, my, my best experience with him and the whole Buffalo Bills thing is that he invoked God at the end of MEET THE PRESS when the Bills were playing the Cowboys in the Super Bowl in Pasadena. And he said something to the effect that if there is a God in heaven, the Bills will win it. And I looked at him, and I said, "Look, I think you've crossed the line here." And he said, "No. I think--I feel strongly about that," you know, "and I'm urging everybody to pray." And, and he said, "I've invoked the entire Catholic Church, trying to get the Bills across the line." And so we go to the game and, of course, the Bills just completely blown out of the Rose Bowl by Dallas. And Tim was walking dejectedly with Luke at his side, who was about 10 at the time, over to the NBC party, and I went to Tim and I said, "You know what this proves?" And he said, "What?" And I said, "God is a Baptist." And to Tim's credit, he told that story wherever he appeared.

MR. BARNICLE: You could never mention Scott Norwood around Tim.

MR. BROKAW: No.

MR. BARNICLE: Wide right in the Super Bowl, Bills lose to the New York Giants. Field goal kicker.

MR. BROKAW: Well, you know, the other thing is that he's what they call in the sports business a "homer." I mean, he, you know, he was for the home team. He was for your team because it was the home team. He was for--when Luke goes to Boston College, it becomes the greatest institution in American life, and the Eagles got more possible attention than they could have imagined.

Can we just share something else? Tim had a 50th birthday eight years ago, and this is a distinguished American historian in a way that you have never, ever seen her before. Ladies and gentlemen, Doris Kearns va-va-voom!

(Videotape)

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: (Popping out of cake, singing in Marilyn Monroe fashion) Happy Birthday...

MR. RUSSERT: Jeff, you're, you're going to see this on Imus. I like this out here.

(End videotape)

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: Oh, God.

MS. IFILL: Did, did you sing?

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: I had to sing. You know how Marilyn Monroe sung, "Happy birthday, Mr. President." So I had to sing, "Happy birthday, Mr. Moderator." Oh, God, it was the most embarrassing moment.

MS. IFILL: No.

MS. KEARNS GOODWIN: I thought, "I'll never be able to do it." And sometime, you put that stupid thing around your neck and you have a wig on, you become another person, at least for a few moments.

MS. FISCHER: And, you know, we had--you think of MEET THE PRESS as a serious show. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun.

MR. BROKAW: Well, what I loved was the--I loved the postmortems.

MS. FISCHER: Yeah.

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