Tim Russert's Shoes

This isn't a criticism of Tim Russert, per se, rather an anecdote that, though trivial, is also rather revealing. From Mark Leibovich's nicely-judged piece in the New York Times:

My last encounter with Mr. Russert was at a Democratic debate in Cleveland, which he was moderating. I was with his colleague Mr. Matthews — I was writing about Mr. Matthews for the New York Times Magazine — and we ran into Mr. Russert in the lobby of the Cleveland Ritz Carlton. He had just worked out and was wearing a sweaty Bills sweatshirt and long shorts and black loafers with tube socks. An MSNBC spokesman who was with us tried to declare Mr. Russert’s attire “off the record,” which I found hilarious, and which I was of course compelled to include in the story. When I called Mr. Russert to tell him this, and he laughed so hard, I had to move the phone away from my ear.

“Just do me one favor,” Mr. Russert said. “Say they were rubber-soled shoes, will you?” Done.

He laughed again, and we talked vividly, I recall, on the topic of how so many people in Washington are obsessed with where they rank, how they’re perceived.

As I say, this is a very minor, insignificant moment, yet the request - and Leibovich's accession to it - are revealing. Does it matter much? Would the public good have been advanced had Leibovich refused Russert's (half-joking?) request? Not especially, but readers might wonder, with some reason, whether someone who was not rich and powerful might have been treated with such consideration. But that's Washington for you: just because it's not off the record doesn't mean it's entirely on the record either...

Comments

[EricW]

That reads to me as if Russert was completely, not half joking about wanting the journo to write that he was wearing "rubber soled shoes". It strikes me as self-deprecating. He knew that the rest of the description of his attire wasn't going to make him sound stylish.

[ben]

I think this is a petty quibble at worst, and to bring it up in this fashion is entirely unworthy of The Debatable Land.

[credit repair affiliate]

He was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's Meet the Press. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Washington bureau chief and also hosted the eponymous CNBC/MSNBC weekend interview program Tim Russert. He was a frequent correspondent and guest on NBC's The Today Show and Hardball.