William Kristol pays his respects to Tim Russert. I almost never watched Meet the Press, but I saw Russert on NBC many times during the network’s political coverage. He was particularly prominent during the contested election of 2000, when he used the whiteboard to show the electoral count. He struck me as fair-minded, pleasant, and enthusiastic. If he had strong political convictions, they never came through in his coverage. I was dismayed recently to see Russert on MSNBC with zealots Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. That sullied Russert’s reputation. As for why he did it, I don’t know. Perhaps he felt that he had to, to keep his bosses happy.