What’s Big Russ going to tell his buddies at the legion hall?

This post will be printed as Letter to the Editor in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Daily Southtown, New York Post and Washington Times.

Tim Russert’s notoriety increased as a result of his books, Big Russ & Me and Wisdom of Our Fathers. Russert told a touching story of how his dad, of the greatest generation, worked hard, won the war, and raised a family with good values and decency. Like a lot of authors whose books reach the top of the New York Times best seller list, he could attribute some of his success to his Imus In The Morning appearances. Russert not only promoted his books on Imus, he did so tearfully at times. Russert was not just another guest on Imus. He was among the most frequent guests and judging from his own admission of sending gifts to Imus’ son, he held himself out as a friend to Imus. Some friend.

In Russert’s April 15 interview of Gwen Ifill on Meet The Press, after Imus had been fired, he asked her if it was necessary for Imus to be fired. Russert implied that a better solution might be for Imus to stay on the airwaves and to become a champion of the cause of overcoming hate-speak as he has successfully championed so many other causes. It’s a shame that in the preceding week when Russert could have used his own influence to add a sensible voice to the so-called dialogue to reach a fair solution, that he remained publicly invisible.

During a week when America’s leading hypocrites Sharpton and Jackson were out for blood, and people like Ifill and Roker made sensible, heartfelt arguments, Russert could have uniquely made the argument in favor of Imus. An argument he was only willing to make in retrospect as a question to someone else. Russert is much better at asking the tough questions than he is with wrestling with them, let alone trying to answer them.

The shameless parade of limousine liberals who couldn’t wait to go on Imus but later said they were only on for the substantive stuff or were unaware of the “darker” side of Imus remind me of people who say they read Playboy for the articles. Even Hillary Clinton wants to go to Rutgers to speak out when a week before Imus went off the air one of her lap dogs was on Imus trying to get him to invite her on the show.

Imus repaired his injury to the Rutgers women by meeting with them privately and apologizing. They accepted his apology in the wake of the tumult done to them not by Imus but by the media and Sharpton. When the incident happened, they dismissed it. Later, they would claim lives were ruined because of it. Imus has repaired his damaged reputation but there are plenty of others with blood on their hands.

Don Imus put pressure on to raise the active military death benefit from $ 12,000 to $ 250,000, get the Center for the Intrepid built, and provide needed and neglected care for children with autism and cancer. While his mouth should been washed out with soap, he should not have been silenced. I believe most of America rolls their eyes and says, “There they go again,” when the cowards at NBC and CBS caved to the mob mentality that carried the day. At least Imus can point to good he has actually accomplished and a living he has actually earned. Real threats to the black community continue to be ignored while the wagons circled around Imus, an easy scapegoat.

Tim Russert has often paid homage to his Catholic education and the noble efforts of the nuns who taught the faith: right from wrong, forming one’s conscience, and standing up for what you believe. These were the lessons that Big Russ’ generation got. It’s a shame that when Little Russ had the chance to take a stand, he took a duck. Little Russ has never looked smaller.

Robert J. Moynihan
Chicago, Illinois