The journey from idealized dedication to journalistic integrity to shill for network advertisers is a short one. Notice that now NBC has hired Russert's son as an analyst. The first time you are picked up at your midtown Manhattan townhouse by the NBC limo because you're too important to drive your own car is when you begin the rapid run down the slippery slope of sell-out.

The liberal media that “outed” the CIA agent certainly was too concerned about the nation's security. But then again causing a scandal is higher on their priority list than worrying about the safety of a CIA agent.

Do not feel guilty about taking him on, either, since your timing is perfect. The old Celtic tradition is to never speak ill of the dead until they are buried, which is to say when their souls have gone on to the land of the dead. You do this because you don't want a haunting. Once they've crossed over, you can say what you want. And I'm glad you did, too.

Tim Russert was by all accounts a nice guy. But he was the classic establishment journalist who knew the questions to ask and who should and especially who should not be allowed to answer them. Tim in recent days has been described as lawyerly even prosecutorial in his approach. There is a lot to that. Tim never seemed that interested in finding the right answer, or the true answer, he was in search of the consistent answer, the one that agreed with or reconciled the respondent's earlier statements or the statements of someone else.

There has been a vast amount of praise for Tim's work from other establishment journalists who practice his style of journalism. In praising Tim, they often seemed to be praising themselves in these times when there role in our national discourse is under pressure and seems to be receding. For these folks, Tim is a saint not because he was a wonderful guy, which he might very well have been, but because they need him to be one, to justify their own way of doing business.

The journey from idealized dedication to journalistic integrity to shill for network advertisers is a short one. Notice that now NBC has hired Russert’s son as an analyst. The first time you are picked up at your midtown Manhattan townhouse by the NBC limo because you’re too important to drive your own car is when you begin the rapid run down the slippery slope of sell-out.

The liberal media that “outed” the CIA agent certainly was too concerned about the nation’s security. But then again causing a scandal is higher on their priority list than worrying about the safety of a CIA agent.