Happy Father's Day ...

A Happy Father's Day to all the great Dads out there.

Here's to my Dad and to my brother, Tim. May they rest in peace, knowing their sons remember them, think of them, and appreciate their hard work each and every day.

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With Father's Day as the theme, this item in -- none other than the NY Post -- remembering NBC's Tim Russert seemed appropriate for today:

By Peggy Noonan

It was a few months ago, the day of the New York primary. I was walking into a studio at Rockefeller Center and bumped into Tim. We said hello, and then he took me aside and his eyes were glowing.

He said he'd just been walking along Sixth Avenue and met an immigrant to America who came up to him with great excitement. She said to him, "Hey, you're the TV man! Listen, I just voted for the first time as an American."

Tim said he told her congratulations, and then he said: "Here is the great thing. Your vote counts just as much as the president's. It has as much weight as anyone else's who's been here forever."

His eyes filled with tears as he told me this. He was a real patriot. He really cared about America and its future.

It was one of those weird turns in life that at the moment he was stricken I was at a small makeshift television studio in Manhattan, talking about . . . Tim Russert. There is something called the Newhouse Media Award, and Tim was being given it later this month. I'd been asked to be one of a dozen or so friends who talked about his specialness, his excellence as a journalist.

I told them he had heroic concentration. He focused. He kept his eye on the ball in an interview, he wasn't rude or aggressive, but he knew what truth he was trying to get at, and he pressed with complete concentration.

I said he changed the broadcast interview forever by using text. He'd use the words a person being interviewed had written or said years before and months before, and he'd contrast them with the person's latest statements on the same subject.

It was a great way to elicit truth; it was a great way to bring out something. It was great TV, but better than that, it was great character-revealing.

I left the most important thing for the end. I bumped into him a few months ago in Boston. I was going to give a speech. I was registering, in the lobby of the hotel, and I saw Tim, and thought he must be up there for work, too, or maybe to make a speech at his beloved Boston College.

But no. He was there for fun. His eyes danced as he told me he was up in town to take his son to a rock concert. They were going to go together and then just hang. I thought, as I always did, this is a good father.

TL comment: I will miss Tim Russert a lot. I did not have the privilege of knowing or working with Russert. I met him once at an NBA event and he was so star-struck by all the players and Legends, I was amazed. Here's a guy who interviews Presidents, Popes and historians, but he's excited to meet a basketball player? His favorite? Bob Lanier because of the Upstate NY- Buffalo-St. Bonnies connection. When it came time for election coverage, I enjoyed Russert's insight the most. His interviews were terrific. My heart goes out to his wife and son, Luke.