russert -- luke russert gave the eulogy at his father's funeral earlier.his is from the kennedy center. >> earlier today i delivered my father's eulogy and i would like to share of view excerpts. i'm club thatvery charity you belong to, he had the same speech for all of year. he which is thing. a little bit. just tinker it a little bit. [laughter] i would like to do the same thing for all of you. [applause] that's what i will do. funeral, observe this you saw things that you did not like or things that were worthy of you commenting on -- of what i saw was in the isles beforehand and afterwards. beforehand and afterwards. the kennedy center program, it was very good, but it was something of a public spectacle. it was a branding opportunity for nbc. definitely there was some difference of opinion on how to family, withthe nbc. ultimately i was struck by the spectacle it had become. , timsay in the book russert would have known better than anyone it was not about him. it was about who was going to fill his void. tom brokaw had a great line. "i want to welcome

>> luke russert is interesting. he is sort of a prince. he gave an incredibly moving eulogy at his father's funeral. looks was funny. a lot of people cast aspersions on him. nepotism gets thrown around a lot. it is quite obvious that he would not have gotten that job. but ultimately washington takes care of its own. but luke russert has had an interesting few years and i have been impressed with how he has handled himself. and really has come through a lot of the criticism he has gotten. it seems like he is doing ok. >> luke russert gave the eulogy at his father's funeral earlier. this is from the kennedy center. >> earlier today i delivered my father's eulogy and i would to share a few excerpts. i'm sorry to every charity club that you belong to, he had the speech for all of you. he would just tinker it a little bit. [laughter] i would like to do the same thing for all of you. [applause] that's what i will do. >> as you observe this funeral, you saw things that you did not like or things that were worthy of you commenting on -- >> a lot o

you needed tim russert. when he died in june of 2008, i saw it as an inflex point, sort of in media, in politics, in the country a little bit. the dawn of ane campaign. the economy was about to crash. twitter -- the first campaign that was fully acted out in the on-line -- in cyberspace. and politico was this new force gaining traction in that election. and in a sense, tim russert's death left a vacuum. in this space, there's a anarchy in the peanut gallery with the new media coming in. in a sense, the center isn't replaced since tim died. he was a consummate american figure. >> how can one man be that important in a city with all of these stars? >> meet the press was a franchise when he was there it was the place where politicians had to go prove their mettle. it was interesting, you had someone like sarah palin bursting on the scene a few months after tim's death and you wonder if tim was still there, would they have let her anywhere near him. well, i guess tim was the one unquestioned authority of sunday

>> luke russert in san diego. tonight, there is late word from israel tonight that prime minister benjamin netanyahu has been hospitalized in jerusalem. his office says he'll undergo surgery to remove a hernia and should be released from the hospital tomorrow. >>> joy at the end of the ramadan holiday turned to tragedy today from baghdad to kirkuk and karbala, a wave of car bombings killed at least 69 people. officials said the attacks appeared to be coordinating sparking fears iraq is perhaps on the verge of new sectarian bloodshed. >>> also on edge tonight, near egypt's border with israel, several expected militants have been killed and a rocket launcher destroyed in what egyptians state media says may have been an israeli drone strike. >>> and torrential rain throwed widespread flooding and mudslides in northern japan killing five people, forcing hundreds to evacuate. >>> when nbc news "nightly news" continues on this saturday evening, the surprises you may face when the new health care law takes effect. >>> an

the formation the i did did you intend to kick it off with the tim russert funeral did that with the idea come from a had you planned the book before i well know i hadn't planned the book before i mean i had i knew in the back of my mind that washington i think had reached a tipping point where the sort of hollywood missed but the sort of carnival atmosphere and the kind of money culture of this town had really reached a tipping point that i wanted to really capture over a period of five or six years tim russert died in the prime of his life in two thousand and eight in june and i was a struck by how his memorial service at the kennedy center just became like a cocktail party us you had presidents there and former presidents there and all kinds of operatives there and just everyone was throwing business cards around and trying to work it and trying to replace him on meet the press and it just struck me as a moment that i wanted to capture and hopefully just sort of flesh it all out i having fun with what you're doing with lawmakers here they come to washington to make a difference th

. >> luke russert is covering the story for us in san diego which is hannah's hometown.h's father may speak out today and are we learning more about the motivations of the alleged kidnapper? >> reporter: yeah, thomas, it's really come forward in the last few days from conversations with hannah's friends or affiliated with hannah and other reports that mr. dimaggio had an infatuation with hannah. this wasn't necessarily known by her mother or her family. he had been a friend of the anderson family a while and always called sort of uncle by them. but it's come forward that he had a particular fascination with hannah and skewed to a romantic interest level which some friends of her said creeped her out. nevertheless, though, her friend and family now are very happy she has returned to san diego but, thomas, there has been a lot of celebration the last 48 hours. people are now starting to understanding and come to grips this is a very difficult journey ahead for hannah anderson. she lost her mom and her brother. no one knows what happened between her and dimaggio while they

. >> nbc luke russert joins us now live from san diego. you know, luke do we yet know the circumstances around how dimaggio was killed here? >> reporter: not specifically, richard. but we do know is that there is a group of four folks from idaho who are on horseback who were having a weekend in the country over there. they were on horseback. they spotted mr. dimaggio and hannah anderson and found them to be sort of odd. let's take a listen to the encounter that one of them described to nbc. >> the weather or something? >> if you can do that. >> reporter: oh, i'm sorry. i guess we don't have the bite right there. but essentially what they saw they said they found them sort of acting in a peculiar manner. they describe a story of where hannah anderson puts her toe in the water and one of the hikers said you shouldn't do that. there are fish that can bite you and hannah anderson saying i guess we are all in a lot of trouble right now. sort after cryptic message, if you will. they alerted authorities after they returned home and the fbi went o

nbc's luke russert joining me from los angeles with the very latest on this. luke, give us a sense.t is the status of this recall effort? >> well, the recall effort will get underway, peter, sunday when that's the first day they can legally do it. they have about 40 days to get 102,000 signatures. now folks leading the recall effort feel that because of these allegations against mayor filner, that that should not be a problem and they'll be able to get this process in motion. filner has taken this week for personal time as his law firm has called it after his two weeks of treatment for sexual harassment. he says he intends to go back to city hall on monday. that is the day that the people trying to push the recall plan to have a protest on city hall t. will feed into the circus like atmosphere that has engulfed san diego. hooters are putting signs in their window saying they are refusing to serve mayor filner. this fits into the whole plethora of people who want him gone, peter. every member of the san diego city council, both senators from california and the chair of the dnc have s

luke russert reports. >> i i will be undergoing two weeks of intensive therapy to begin the process of addressing my behavior. >> are san diego mayor is out today and will continue his treatment for sexual harassment on an out patient basis that demands his resignation intensified. the latest from california senator barbara boxer wrote bob, you have hurt so many people and you should step down immediately. allegations against him first surfaced when his communications director went public last month. >> i was placed in a filner headlock and moved around as a rag doll while he whispered sexual comments in my ear. >> over a dozen women came if order with similar charges including an admiral. >> he ran his finger up my check and whispered do you have a man in your life. >> a college dean. >> he held me which was inappropriate. the hand on the knee that lasted too long. >> last week new victims allege he harassed them while working with a female veterans group. >> we trusted him to come into an organization like that. it is supposed to be a safe place to heal. >> both senators and nancy pe

luke russert looking cool in the shades. >>> a new book on the manson murders is out.alk to the author about the details he's covered about the killing spree. jif peanut butter. peanut butter and jelly is a staple in our house for school lunches. look at walmart's price. wow. that's great. now all your back to school meals are covered. thank you. ok, ready? what?! that's the walmart low price guarantee backed by ad match. save time and money getting your kids ready for school. bring in receipts from your local stores and see for yourself. save more this back to school packing kid friendly and tasty lunches with low prices on velveeta slices, kool-aid jammers 10 packs and jif creamy peanut butter. with our low price guarantee backed by ad match. loses his computer, exposing thousands of patient records to identity theft. data breaches can happen that easily. we don't believe you should be a victim of someone else's mistake. we're lifelock. we constantly monitor the web so if any of your personal information is misused, we're on it. ♪ ow. [ male announcer ] call 1-800-li

asked by tim russert.u believe that the president should get authorization from congress to em bark on a military campaign against iraq? his answer, absolutely. your reaction? >> well, let's take a moment to inhale the fumes o tashke arbitrariness of these people who under the bush administration had spittle and fleck and foam at the mouth talking about the need for congressional approval and the articulating, as joe biden did in his rant what they consider the right standard for any kind of military intervention. that's out the window, of course. there was a wonderful moment on twitter yesterday when lots of observers on the left, right and center were naming this new war of obamas. my favorites were operation enduring confusion and operation that was then, this is now. >> we all see over 100,000 people have been killed now. >> wrae. >> this is the most recent example, the use of chemical weapons. >> yeah. >> you have hundreds of thousands of refugees, as colonel north said. if there was any possibility o

. >> clint, luke russert here in burbank. i have a question regarding the psyche of the victims. >> yeah. >> there was last week where amanda berry stood up at a nelli rap concert. the whole crowd stood up to them. is it good for them to become quasi celebrities in the public eye? what's the pattern for them? high profile case. how do they find that normal balance in life and is it just best to get away or is it best to go out in front of the public view? >> i think that is a good question, luke, and i think that's something that they're going to have to deal with. realize, it's only been three months since these women were released and there may be something on the surface that allows them to go out and wave and say hi to people or something like this, but, luke, there are emotional chains that are stronger than any steel chains this man could have put around their ankles as he's chained them into a bedroom and these chains take a long time to -- the physical scars are going to disappear but the emotional scars, the ability

our luke russert is in san diego, which is hannah's hometown. learning about hannah anderson and being back with her father? because there was word that her dad may speak out today. >> reporter: yeah, he's going to have that press conference at 2:30 pacific time, thomas. something that the family had feared was that hannah would not be aware of what happened to her mother or brother. the sheriff here, bill gordon, in an interview with a local station confirmed she was unaware that her mother and brother were actually killed in that fire, presumably set by mr. dimaggio. that is something that the family has been quite worried about. obviously, she went through a traumatic experience being kidnapped and driven on a week-long hostage situation up to idaho, but now that she's coming back to a society where her mom is dead, her brother is dead, thankfully she is alive, but it now becomes a story, thomas, of survival. that is something that her family, while they are very happy she was found yesterday, they've already sort of made that transition into

nbc's luke russert is joining us from out west now. i know you were in san diego a couple days ago.s there anything that can get this guy out of office? >> pete, as of right now, it seems that public hue millation is not moving mayor filner to leave office. as well as the call for his resignation by the council, the the two senators, the dnc. the only base of support is organized labor. it's really amazing. there is no one standing up for filner. if you talk to anyone on street, every single one i spoke to said they want him to leave, he's embarrassing the town. a lot of folks are interested to why he's pursuing this strategy. the 14 women, all of whom follow a similar pattern. they needed him to work on a specific constituent issue for them. bob filner said she had to go to dinner with him before he would get treatment for that cop bmba veteran. a lot of folks are speculating around san diego that he's trying to work out some sort of agreement with the city attorney that the city would cover the cost perhaps related to this lawsuit file by gloria allred, former communications, dire

luke russert is covering this story and joins us.ve change the locks on the mayor's door, luke. let's start with the serious part. >> the serious part, thomas, is that bob filner and his staff have said he will be back to work on monday. he is taking his first week back after two weeks of therapy for his personal time as the staff said. he plans to go back to city hall on monday. on sunday night the recall position to try to remove him from office will start. the petitioners need to get 200,000 signatures in 39 days and say it's quite possible. a lot of saying the 14 women filing sexual harassment cases against filner some aegregious and difficult to read. some folks saying he is staying on to cut the possible deal for himself to get out with the city attorney. remember a lawsuit filed against him. the city has said they will not pay for mr. filner's defense. he perhaps is trying to cut some sort of deal that would limit his financial liability. the whole plethora of problems for bob filner and an investigation into his use on a cred

. >> nbc's luke russert is in san diego this afternoon. >> reporter: yeah, guys.ascinating developments today. the sheriff here in san diego county, bill gore, in an interview with a local affiliate said hannah anderson was held under duress and was unaware that her mother and brother were killed in that fire set by mr. dimaggio. her father is going to have a press conference around 2:30 pacific time. this has really become a story about a survivor. that's what hannah anderson will become. she's going to sort of join this club of elizabeth smart and these folks who have a traumatic experience to them and grow up in the public spotlight. the family has been preparing for that. they said they were ecstatic to have hannah found alive, but they knew that with her mother dead and her brother dead that she was coming back to a very difficult environment. they have totally cleaned out her mother's apartment. they never want her to go back there. they want her to start her life anew within her community, within her hometown and try to have as normal a life moving forward

tim russert.ood morning, sir. caller: thank you for c-span. i am 15 years airforce. the drone strikes, ron paul complaining, these guys want to complain about this to give president obama credit and try to knock him down. feel that this is so american. caller: -- host: thank you for waiting. caller: the embassies are supposed to protected by the nation's they are in. only supposed to have a nominal amount of staff there. to close them sends the wrong message. i doubt any of this goes to the people. host: thank you for the call. edward has this story from "the new york times." howe in a toxic country, well our child be affected by the bad air and food in china." joe is joining us from boston. caller: i am calling in response to the caller that apologize for the extra security from the nsa, calling from boston to let everyone know that it does not work. i just want to remind everyone does theranklin said, give up their freedom for security will have for deserve neither." willhey're saying they come

it is important that the people who are involved in this be able to remember the late great tim russert in dc who used to always come after a speech or debate say, what is the bumper sticker? if there is one thing that the right has achieved better than the left liberal progressives of recent years, it's the bumper sticker war, being able to change the conversation. for example, the death tax. it used to be called the estate tax. it was because grover norquist and the others ran it that way and shifted the conversation. class warfare, i love that one. no one talks about the class warfare of the koch brothers or the people at the top. it is some socialistic communist it what ever. these things matter, words matter. this is one thing that needs to be stressed. focus on what is your goal and articulate that over and over again. >> going off that, what everyone has been talking about with executive orders and how we can get president obama to act on that -- i wanted to start with alvin if you have any thoughts on that. >> i believe the president has spoken on that. what is happening is cong

phillip randolph, who created the brotherhood of sleeping car reporters and russert, the guy who actually organized this tremendous march, they were socialists. and rusten was a passivist -- >> and denounced as a communist. >> and denounced as a communist, exactly right. and the idea was that they thought, they had in mind, and i still believe, that you can't separate jobs and justice, that economic justice goes together. that you can't have real freedom in a capitalist society like the united states if you can't work, if you can't support your family. that's what they were trying to pound home. so you had to overcome legal segregation and all other kind of discrimination in order to get the economic justice that would ensure you could be a free citizen of this society. and that was perceived as radical in those days. >> that fascinates me as i read up on it. part of the story of the march sort of coming together, robert, was the message was toned down. john lewis was an example, i read an account of basically behind the lincoln memorial, hours before the rally is to begin, john lewis was

stop to that because the civilians should not be involved, and they should not be doing that, and russert -- russia should not be giving them the weapons to do that. if you sit back and let them keep doing that, and you let them get away with it, and you it,ot stop them from doing what is going to stop them from coming over here and doing it? >> dwight? toght, i am going to have let you go. you have to mute your set. richmond, virginia. >> here we go again. this is what we should be thinking about. these people are at it again. is his country. let them determine themselves what the outcome will be. stay out of it. the congressman do not even want to vote on it. there were 28 out of 500 and some that were on the conference line. they do not even want to deal with it. we will go in and help build the country up and spend some money doing that. it is ridiculous. they are at it again, and we cannot keep doing this. we cannot keep going on. have we forgotten the boys, the kids that came home from the war, and i call them kids because they are so young, and have we forgotten the kids that came

the peopletant that who are involved in this be able to remember the late great tim russert in dc who used to always come after a speech or debate say, what is the bumper sticker? if there is one thing that the right has achieved better than the left liberal progressives of recent years, it's the bumper sticker war, being able to change the conversation. for example, the death tax. it used to be called the estate tax. it was because grover norquist and the others ran it that way and shifted the conversation. that one.are, i love no one talks about the class warfare of the koch brothers or the people at the top. it is some socialistic communist it what ever. these things matter, words matter. thing that needs to be stressed. focus on what is your goal and articulate that over and over again. that, whatff everyone has been talking about with executive orders and how we can get president obama to act on that -- i wanted to start with alvin if you have any thoughts on that. i believe the president has spoken on that. what is happening is congress, that is the problem. president put that s