Russert’s finest interviews yet to come

As the Righteous Brothers sang in their 1974 hit, “If you believe in forever, then life is just a one night stand. If there’s a rock ‘n’ roll heaven, then you know they’ve got a hell of a band.” And if there’s a political heaven – I know, I’m skeptical, too – then you just know they have one hell of a Sunday morning talk show.

With heavy hearts we bid farewell to Tim Russert. But after the grieving and the sense of loss and the overwhelming shock of his sudden death wear off, it’s nice to think that he’s in a better place.

Imagine the lineup on heaven’s “Meet the Press”!

This week’s schedule might feature the usual suspects, such as George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. Next week, Russert could start interviewing American heroes that never took a life but willingly risked their own, such as Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King Jr.

Personally, I’d love to see Tim interview Smedley Butler, the former Marine who, when he died in 1940, was the most highly decorated Marine in United States history. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor twice. Likewise, the major general twice received the highly prestigious Marine Corps Brevet Medal.

Imagine Tim interviewing the only person in history to have been awarded both those honors twice and for separate actions. Tim could wind up the hour discussing Major Gen. Butler’s opinion of our penal institution at Guantanamo Bay, considering Butler’s valor helped secure the region in 1898.

They could chat about Butler’s book, “War is a Racket,” published in 1930, in which Butler wrote, “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers.” The major general listed the sugar, fruit, finance and oil companies that used U.S. military might to secure positions all around the globe.

The fearless Butler named names and even wrote that in 1927 he “helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.” Butler mused, “Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Russert will love the straight-talking Butler, who said, “War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” This week is the anniversary of his death. He has waited 68 years for the interview of a lifetime.

But Tim really loved presidential politics. Our mourning his loss turns to reverential delight when thinking that Tim Russert is now in the company of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

President Eisenhower had a great deal in common with Major Gen. Butler. These extraordinary war heroes made nearly identical observations about war.

Ninety-three years and six days ago, our former president received his first commission in the U.S. Army. From lieutenant in 1915 through general of the Army in 1944, Eisenhower became intimately acquainted with war.

And when he retired as president, Eisenhower expanded beyond Butler’s concerns about profiteering by issuing his now famous warning, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Tim Russert, then only a grammar school kid, likely couldn’t imagine how important he’d become as an arbiter of political discourse. But talk about heaven! Imagine the delight he’ll feel asking President Eisenhower for the best solution to the problems that persist in the Iraq. And what will Eisenhower, knowing his concern about the military machine fueling itself, reply?

He might answer with words he used more than 50 years ago: “I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.” Then President Eisenhower might further repeat himself by adding, “Tim, peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.”

Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the spokesperson for the Evergreen Mountain Resort & Casino referendum campaign. She’s the author of “Left Out in America” and can be reached at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com. Kathleen Parker is on vacation this week.