Barnicle seems like he was pretty close to Russert's best friend.  Imus does a great job with the interview as usual, and we get more detail of that last day.  Barnicle happened to be taking over for Chris Matthews' hosting duties, and ended up sharing a last lunch with Russert that day.  [Starts around 17:00]

Somewhat off-topic, but it's part of where we are in media & politics.