When death strikes suddenly, the clinical why of it all becomes as terribly pressing as it is ultimately irrelevant. At TPM we first heard news of Tim Russert’s death from colleagues and sources in the news and political world at about 3:20 PM eastern. We scrambled to find out more information — particularly, some sort of confirmation. And we first published news of Russert’s death about 8 minutes later when his passing was confirmed by The New York Times.
From the first reports it seemed clear that Russert had died of a heart attack. But there was some uncertainty in the original reporting, which I guess makes sense since I’m not sure a heart attack, or what is in clinical terms called a ‘myocardial infarction‘, can be definitively distinguished from other causes of cardiac arrest without an autopsy.
Since Russert had flown across the Atlantic just yesterday it had occurred to me and a few of our readers this afternoon that he might have suffered a pulmonary embolism — something that can strike people who have been on long plane flights or extended bed rest. But this was not the case.
This may seem like a coolly clinical response to this very sad news. But that’s not the case. My own curiosity, which is much to dispassionate a word to convey my need to know, must have stemmed from the fact that my own father died just short of two years ago in more or less exactly the same way.
When I heard the first sketchy descriptions of my father’s death I thought the people who were telling me he had had a heart attack must be wrong because there was, apparently, no violent grasping of the chest or look of pressure or pain on his face. In layman’s terms, he had a few moments of feeling flush. And then he fainted. To me, in my happy ignorance, that sounded more like a stroke.
This evening when I checked back on the news after spending time with my family, I read this story in the New York Times which now confirms that a sudden heart attack was the cause of death.
His internist, Dr. Michael A. Newman, told MSNBC that “an autopsy had found that Mr. Russert had an enlarged heart and significant coronary artery disease.” According to the Associated Press, Russert had been “diagnosed with asymptomatic coronary artery disease, which he was controlling with medication and exercise.”
Since heart attack is such a common cause of death (the most common in the United States) I know many, many of you have experienced something very similar in your own lives. My fingers on the keyboard want to say that I can only imagine the shock and grief his wife and son are feeling right now. But I don’t have to imagine. I remember. And my heart and prayers go out to them. Even more I wish them loved ones who can support and contain their agony and sorrow.
Russert was 58 years old.
Following up on my post below, here is video of an an interview NBC’s Andrea Mitchell conducted with Russert’s doctor, Michael Newman. Newman notes that Russert’s doctors also wondered about the possibility of a pulmonary embolism because his death came so soon after a long plane flight. But an autopsy, which Newman relates, determined it was a heart attack.
We haven’t had Rudy Giuliani to kick around for a while. But Rudy seems intent on throwing us a bone.
The Times reports that with the GOP for once running seriously behind Democrats in campaign fundraising, Giuliani is offering to hold fundraisers for down-ticket Republicans. But with an important catch — he gets to keep part of the haul for himself.
Rudy has $3.6 million in campaign debt from his historically catastrophic campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. And while the precise modalities aren’t completely clear, Giuliani is telling Republicans candidates that for him to come to headline a fundraiser to raise money for them — some of the cash has to be set aside to help him retire his campaign debt.
The article contains quotes from various Republicans operatives who seem to think Giuliani is a self-serving schmuck. But the kicker comes in this passage toward the end of the piece …
The fact that Mr. Giuliani — who had an estimated net worth of at least $30 million in 2006, according to financial disclosure forms filed last year — has loaned his campaign money gives the fund-raising a particular urgency. Candidates generally have unlimited time to pay off campaign debt. But if any portion of a personal loan to a campaign is unpaid by the end of an election cycle, the maximum amount that can be repaid with money raised after that is $250,000, according to Bob Biersack, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission.
That means that Mr. Giuliani could have to forgive all or part of his $500,000 loan if he does not raise the funds to pay it back before September, when Senator John McCain is formally chosen as the Republican presidential nominee, officially ending the primary elections
That is tough, isn’t it? $30 million Rudy is faced with the prospect of having to take a loss of as much as $250,000 unless he can find local Republican givers who’ll give him a chunk of the money they’ve set aside for funding the party’s candidates.
As many of you know, David Kurtz is our indispensable managing editor here at TPM, which means you see him with some frequency writing on the main blog and you’re almost always seeing his work, as editor, though without always knowing it, across the rest of our news blogs and general news coverage.
David is away the first three days of this week because he’s attending the International Press Institute World Congress & 57th General Assembly in Belgrade, Serbia.
He’ll be appearing on a panel tomorrow morning at 9:30 AM (local time) entitled “New Media: New Opportunities, New Threats”. And then Tuesday afternoon at the event’s closing ceremony he’ll be accepting the “Free Media Pioneer 2008” award on behalf of TPM.
David just arrived in Belgrade a couple hours ago. So obviously it will be a pretty whirlwind trip. But between panels and receptions and trying to squeeze in a little sleep he’ll also be doing some special Belgrade blogging. So keep your eyes out for it.
Telecom and technology policy virtually never get discussed in presidential elections. And a lot of otherwise politically-attuned folks don’t have much of a sense one way or another what they think telecom policy should be. But in addition to its obvious importance in media, free speech and civic terms, telecom policy is hugely important to the future of the economy.
Here’s video of a recent panel discussion between Michael Powell and and Reed Hundt, as surrogates for McCain and Obama.
It’s Monday morning here in Belgrade, where I am attending the International Press Institute’s World Congress & 57th General Assembly, as Josh mentions below.
I staggered in late Sunday evening, after an eventful series of four flights that bounced me from the States to London and then to Munich, before finally arriving in Belgrade sans luggage. To give you some sense of what bad weather in Atlanta can do for air travel, my best available connection to Belgrade at one point appeared to be via Dubai, of all places. I talked the airline down off that ledge.
The big news in Europe is Euro 08, the soccer tournament. But George Bush is also here. In London Sunday he was greeted by protesters who scuffled with police.
The big news in Serbia is Kosovo. My arrival here coincided with a new constitution taking effect Sunday in recently independent Kosovo, which further aggrieved Serbia.
President Boris TadiÄ spoke at the opening of the IPI conference (before my belated arrival) and not surprisingly rejected the new constitution: “Serbia sees Kosovo as her southern province and defends her integrity by peaceful means, with diplomacy, and not force.”
I hope to write more later on the Serbia-Kosovo tensions. In the meantime I must finish preparing for my panel this morning, New Media: New Opportunities, New Threats, moderated by Roy Greenslade who, among other endeavors, blogs for the UK’s Guardian. Joining me on the panel will be Dejan Restak, the website director for B92 in Belgrade, and Christoph Schultheis, a founder of BILDblog in Berlin.
With my luggage en route from Paris, I’m afraid I’ll do nothing today to dispel the stereotype of the grungy blogger.
From the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.):
Justice Department lawyers have filed a grand-jury referral stemming from the 2006 U.S. attorneys scandal, according to people familiar with the probe, a move indicating that the yearlong investigation may be entering a new phase.
The grand-jury referral, the first time the probe has moved beyond the investigative phase, relates to allegations of political meddling in the Justice Department’s civil-rights division, these people say. Specifically, it focuses on possible perjury by Bradley Schlozman, who served a year as interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo.
…
It wasn’t clear which of Mr. Schlozman’s comments prosecutors are focusing on. He has declined to be interviewed by investigators since leaving the department. One possibility focuses on Mr. Schlozman’s 2007 testimony to Congress, one part of which he later retracted.
You can watch the Schlozman testimony in question here and read his “clarification” of his testimony here.
Lanny Davis makes it official: signs on with Fox News.
Late Update: Reminds us of Lanny’s Induction into the Fox News Media Bias Cult only a few weeks ago…