'Where In the World Is Luke Russert?'

Could be a couple of factors at work here. First, he may just have bitten off too much in the aftermath of his father's death while at the same time the suits at NBC probably expected too much from a college-age kid.

One other possibility: He's ashamed of the mess that NBC and MSNBC have become since his father died, considering they've become a de facto adjunct of the Obama press office.

SOME hardworking folks at NBC and MSNBC -- who work long hours for little pay -- are wondering, "Where in the world is Luke Russert?"

One insider sniped, "He was hired last year to be the youth correspondent -- he got a great contract and was supposed to cover youth issues, blog and bring in young viewers, but he's been MIA for a while. It's like, 'Well, that's what you get for nepotism.' "

Russert, 23, was hired at the network on July 31 as a correspondent-at-large, after his beloved father, Washington bureau chief and moderator of "Meet the Press" Tim Russert, died last summer.

Luke was highly visible during the presidential campaign, but disappeared after the inauguration. He was raked over the coals when news of an "Inaugural Party Hosted by Luke Russert" at preppy DC nightclub the Rookery was announced. The party had a $95 cover and a "cheesy" invite with Russert posing as Uncle Sam in the "I Want You" pose. It also violated NBC's ethics policies and forced the network to issue a statement noting it was not an NBC event. Russert quickly had his image deleted from the fliers.

The insider sniped, "He hasn't even updated his blog which he's paid a lot to do and just got on Twitter. Some youth correspondent!"

Russert's last blog, "The Courage To Go Online" was posted Dec. 4, 2008 -- and he started his Twitter account on Feb. 18, which was the date, incidentally, that Luke was last on air, interviewing Bill Clinton for President's Day. His last tweet, "Been on the Road," was on March 31.

Maybe he's still on the road somewhere.

'Why a Requiem Mass for a Pet Canary?'

Wow, this guy sounds like a real Class A douchebag. Was probably just jealous Tim Russert achieved fame and respect far beyond anything he could imagine.

FRIENDS and family of Tim Russert are saddened by a piece in Harper's magazine by Lewis Lapham, who characterizes the late host of NBC's "Meet the Press" as a toady of the establishment and asks, "Why a requiem Mass for a pet canary?"

Russert died June 13 of a heart attack at age 58, and soon "the story was being wrapped up in the ribbons of a national tragedy, up there in lights with the death of President Ronald Reagan and the loss of Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer on the field at the Little Bighorn," Lapham writes in the September issue.

Lapham goes into great detail over the subsequent "procession of Washington media celebrities arriving with rush deliveries of op-ed-page solemnity and camera-ready grief."

By June 18, when MSNBC staged a memorial service for Russert at the Kennedy Center, "if I'd thought that the bathos couldn't reach new force levels, it was because I'd failed to account for either the cynicism or the vanity of a fourth estate that regards itself as the light in the window of Western civilization," Latham wails.

While he has only praise for Russert as a person, he states, "His on-air persona was that of an attentive and accommodating headwaiter, as helpless as Charlie Rose in his infatuation with A-list celebrity."

Veteran TV news executive Steve Friedman, who was at NBC News when Russert arrived in 1984 and who served as one of his honorary pallbearers, told Page Six Lapham "is trying to be provocative to get attention."

A search for this dope turned up this paean to the odious Molly Ivins, so you have an idea where the old coot is coming from. And if you want the true essence of moonbattery, check out this interview with the psychotic Bill Moyers.

His crowning journalistic achievement was traveling ahead in time to witness the 2004 GOP Convention.

Classy guy.

Hot Air and Instapundit link. Thanks!

Krazy Keith Kooky for Ketchup

It's pretty clear low-rated cable clown Keith Olbermann has issues outside the political realm. In fact, he sounds rather abusive, unhinged and downright unstable.

Of course rather than facing his problems, he'll likely just make the Page Six editor worst person in the world.

MSNBC blowhard Keith Olbermann couldn't even control his temper at a memorial reception for beloved Tim Russert.

Network sources told Page Six Olbermann was furious last week when MSNBC didn't get him a first-class ticket to Washington, DC, for a private service honoring the "Meet the Press" anchor's passing.

The source said Olbermann was screaming into the phone on Tuesday because there were no first-class train tickets available for that day, and he wanted to make sure he would ride first-class on Wednesday. According to the source, Olbermann berated a staffer who was coordinating Wednesday's Kennedy Center memorial by yelling, "You better hope to God there is a first-class train ticket tomorrow."

Our insider elaborated, "MSNBC was dealing with who could come to the private ceremony Tuesday and who couldn't, among the hundreds of people who worked with or for Russert - and Keith was ranting about not getting a first-class ticket."

We're told Olbermann didn't get to Tuesday's ceremony, and went to Washington by car to broadcast from outside the Kennedy Center the next day. An aghast witness there said, "As guests were making their way into the memorial, Keith went apoplectic because there were no ketchup packets at the Kennedy Center."

He really should consider a long stay at a nice place with padded walls.

Previously.

'The Most Ruthless, Opportunistic Person I've Ever Encountered'

Now who is this ruthless, opportunistic person?

None other than the High Priestess of Hate herself, the vile and loathsome Arianna Huffington.

Interesting item in the New York Daily News today chronicling a long-running feud with Tim Russert and his wife Maureen Orth.

Russert and his wife, Maureen Orth, said Huffington was the one with a vendetta. They contended that her spleen was payback for a 1994 Vanity Fair exposé Orth did on her former husband, Michael Huffington. Orth also claimed in a 2004 speech that Huffington was "the most ruthless, opportunistic person I've ever encountered." As evidence, she pointed to Republican political consultant Ed Rollins' memoir, in which he claimed Huffington hired a detective to snoop on Orth.

Huffington vigorously denied that claim, but clearly, the world's best private eye wouldn't have found any love lost between her and Russert.

Speaking of the Huffington Post, today they have yet another anti-American screed from the terrorist-loving hack Andy Worthington.

Worthington latches on to a dubious McClatchy study of alleged treatment of guests at Club Gitmo. I'm not sure who has less credibility, Worthington or the floundering McClatchy crew, who note how former detainees are easy recruits for al Qaeda. Which begs the question: Wasn't it a good idea to detain them?

Mohammed Naim Farouq was a thug in the lawless Zormat district of eastern Afghanistan. He ran a kidnapping and extortion racket, and he controlled his turf with a band of gunmen who rode around in trucks with AK-47 rifles.

U.S. troops detained him in 2002, although he had no clear ties to the Taliban or al Qaida. By the time Farouq was released from Guantanamo the next year, however — after more than 12 months of what he described as abuse and humiliation at the hands of American soldiers — he'd made connections to high-level militants.

In fact, he'd become a Taliban leader. When the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency released a stack of 20 "most wanted" playing cards in 2006 identifying militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan — with Osama bin Laden at the top — Farouq was 16 cards into the deck.

Can you believe their gullibility? He had no clear ties, but does that mean he had none at all? He ran kidnapping and extortion rackets, so when we went into Afghanistan, wasn't it a good idea that we clear out guys like him?

And just when he happens to return, he manages to climb the ladder overnight to a Taliban leader?

The idiocy boggles the mind.

Update: Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

Also, a related Orth-Huffington item here.

Spitting on Tim Russert's Legacy

A sad day Friday with the passing of NBC's Tim Russert, a real class act.

Of course, leave it to a buffoon like Chris Matthews to tarnish Russert's legacy with a disgraceful anti-war rant. Amazingly, Matthews does the near impossible--making Keith Olbermann seems professional by comparison.

The suits at NBC must be so proud.

H/T Hot Air.

RIP, Tim Russert

NBC's Tim Russert has passed away at the age of 58. Our condolences to his family and friends.

Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after being stricken at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” broadcast when he collapsed, the network said.

He had recently returned from Italy, where his family was celebrating the graduation of Russert’s son, Luke, from Boston College.

No further details were immediately available.

Russert was best known as host of “Meet the Press,” which he took over in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, “Meet the Press” is the longest-running program in the history of television.

But he was also a vice president of NBC News and head of its overall Washington operations, a nearly round-the-clock presence on NBC and MSNBC on election nights.

He was “one of the premier political journalists and analysts of his time,” Tom Brokaw, the former longtime anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in announcing Russert’s death. “This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice.”

In 2008, Time Magazine named Russert him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.

Obama & The Leftist Media

H/T conservativepunk