Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama sat next to each other at Tim Russert’s funeral Wednesday as Washington bid farewell to one of its most influential journalists.
Russert was later eulogized at a separate memorial service at the Kennedy Center by Mario Cuomo, Maria Shriver, Tom Brokaw and even the Catholic nun who taught Russert in the seventh grade. Russert’s friend and favorite musician, Bruce Springsteen, also made a surprise appearance via satellite from Europe, where he is on tour.
“My dad was my best friend,” Russert’s 22-year-old son, Luke, recalled at the funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown. “Tim Russert led with his heart, his compassion and most of all his honor.”
Russert, host of the top-rated “Meet the Press” show and Washington bureau chief for NBC News, died Friday of a heart attack at the age of 58. The city’s power elite has been in mourning ever since.
“It is not easy to preach a homily for Tim and to communicate the feelings we all share concerning this remarkable man, for he was truly one of the great communicators in American society,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said in the Mass homily.
Guests arriving at the Kennedy Center were greeted by music from Russert’s iPod, including Lynyrd Skynyrd singing “I’m as free as a bird now.” Brokaw, the former NBC “Nightly News” anchor, injected some levity into the proceedings by opening with a quip.
“This is a celebration and we’re going to do it Irish style,” he said. “There’s going to be some tears, some laughs — and the occasional truth.”
Brokaw recalled the rumpled Russert as “an unmade bed of a man.” He joked about “the largest contingent of all in this room, those who think that they should be his successor on ‘Meet the Press.’”
Shriver’s eulogy included allusions to the assassinations of her uncles, President John Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy.
“Having lived through more than a few losses that defy understanding, I’ve learned that asking why doesn’t help,” said Shriver, wife of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “The only thing that does help is leaning on your friends and leaning on your family.”
Shriver, a former journalist, also told a humorous story about accompanying Russert to Cuba, where the newsman’s eagerness to meet Fidel Castro almost overshadowed Shriver’s interview of the communist dictator.
Sister Mary Lucille Socciarelli recalled that she and Russert “shared a common bond: our love of John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert Kennedy.” The nun told of channeling Russert’s “excessive energy” into the founding of a student newspaper, which he edited.
“In all of my 55 years as a sister of Mercy, Tim Russert stands head and shoulders above all the many students that I have been blessed to have taught,” Socciarelli said. “You’re in heaven now, Tim, where every day is ‘Meet the Press.’ Welcome home.”
