From Joe Klein:

“. . . even at the top of his profession, he never lost track of his roots — in part, because he never lost track of his dad, Big Russ, a Buffalo sanitation worker who survives him. Tim would review his Sunday questions with Big Russ in mind, always asking himself, ‘What would dad want to know?’ About ten years ago, he decided to buy his father a car. ‘Buy anything you want, Dad,’ Tim offered. Big Russ picked a Ford. ‘So I said, to him, “Dad, you can get a Mercedes — anything you want,” Tim told me later. ‘But he says, “No Timmy, I want a Crown Vic. That’s what the cops drive.”‘

Tim Russert was both a tough questioner and a civil moderator. Above all, he loved politics and admired the women and men who play the game.