NYT interviewer asks Tim Russert: What about your MOTHER?

[DeepModem Mom]

Questions for Tim Russert
All About My Father
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON
Published: May 14, 2006

(DS)....You've just gathered...letters into your new book, "Wisdom of Our Fathers." Now that you have heroized fathers, will you ever pen a book about your mother, "Big Betty and Me"?

(TR) Big Betty? Actually it was Little Betty.

(DS) Since you're fond of recalling the many virtues instilled in you by your father, a retired sanitation worker in Buffalo, can you tell us what your mother taught you?

(TR) In the "Big Russ" book, I talked about Father Donovan, our local pastor, who every Mother's Day would say, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

(DS) That's not a story about your mother. It's a story about Father Donovan....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14wwln_q4.html?ex=1147924800&en=fb547d96b55f64a3&ei=5087%0A

[Warner2008]

1. Jeez, what a bitch! n/t

ss

[endarkenment]

5. I agree timmy is a total bitch.

Oh, and welcome to DU!

[progmom]

6. really? the interviewer? i totally disagree.

but...welcome to DU.

[displacedtexan]

11. Don't tell me; let me guess...

You wanted yet another interview about Russert's Dad?

Welcome to DU, btw!

[quiet.american]

2. His avoidance of any direct comment about his mother is very interesting.

Methinks that's where the real story for a book would be.

[Jack from Charlotte]

9. Yea. What's up with that? (nt)

*

[bloom]

12. Exactly

Makes you wonder.

How odd.

[Warpy]

3. One wonders if he actually HAD a mother

since all he has is bromides from other men.

[Caoimhe]

4. Apparently his mother only

squatted and dropped him. The rest of his life and personality can be blamed on his father. What a great guy!

[central scrutinizer]

7. it's because of his fixation

<>

[flordehinojos]

8. what a damn shallow man this timmy russette...and he doesn't want to

inject himself in his interviews with others? damn bastard does it every sunday, and my first recollection of it was what he did to les aspin, and he has continued to do it ever since to every guest who is contrary to his own political views.

such a damn narcissist too!

and, did he have a mother? he must have. the reporter knows her name. was she an alcoholic, an abuser....what about his mother is he hiding?

too bad the reporter did not pressure him.

[DeepModem Mom]

16. Seems to me there's an issue of some kind there, for sure. nt

[porphyrian]

10. Women have dirty pillows! - n/t

[AlCzervik]

13. Russert actually gave his father that nickname--"Big Russ" i've always

found that kind of interesting, usually nicknames are given to people by friends or parents.

[jillan]

14. Mother? Father?

When it comes to Russert, I won't be buying the book no matter what.

I think he should have wrote a book about his dry-erase boards.

[wicket]

15. I LOVE this part:

You still haven't answered the question of what your mom taught you. What do you do on "Meet the Press" if your guests fail to answer your questions?

It's so interesting. Do I sometimes feel internally like I should lean over and just shake this person and say, "Please answer the question"? Of course I do. But I do not want to make them the least bit sympathetic. For me to inject myself or become personal, I think would probably make the guest very sympathetic, and I don't want to do that.

And he still doesn't answer the question! :rofl:

[FredScuttle]

17. Is Big Russ a hermaphrodite?

That would explain Little Timmeh's reluctance to talk about his "mom"....and would also explain his obnoxiously public, slavish celebration of a person of indeterminate gender who not only birthed him, but gave him all those manly lessons.