According to this story that an NBC-owned website pulled from the Associated Press, NBC is rumored to finally be ready — six months after Tim Russert's death — to announce an official replacement host for Meet the Press. Almost.

Now, when you hear the name, you'll most likely think to yourself "Gregory who?" But that's a very naive response.

The correct response should be "David who?"

NBC News is close to naming chief White House correspondent David Gregory as Tim Russert's replacement on the top-ranked Sunday political talk show "Meet the Press," a network executive said Tuesday.

Gregory is negotiating terms of a deal that would give him the job, said the NBC News executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal wasn't final.

For those of you familiar with MSNBC's early evening programing, you might recognize David Gregory as the hour-long blank space on your television screen between Chris Matthews at 5 pm and Chris Matthews at 7 pm.

I knew that NBC was looking to find a replacement who could match the depth and strength of Tim Russert's personality.

I'd just assumed that they meant before Russert's heart attack.

I woke up this morning still thinking about the shocking, and untimely death of the man who first got me excited about politics with his white board back in 2000.  Tomorrow is Father's Day (it happens to be my first as a dad) and I know this will be difficult on his son and his father, especially after last year when he wrote that incredibly moving book to his dad.  

So this morning I decided to cheer myself up by watching some of the absolutely brilliant Darrell Hammond impressions of Russert.  They were kind of difficult to find on their website, In fact, I could only find this one. Please post links if you can find more.  

Make sure you tune into NBC tomorrow morning for Tom Brokaw's tribute to Russert on Meet the Press.

UPDATE: I've posted Conan O'Brien's touching tribute from last night below the fold.

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Update: From Huffington Post…

Russert suffered a massive heart attack and collapsed Friday afternoon in NBC's Washington bureau, according to the New York Post

Russert was in the tracking booth, recording a track, when he collapsed. He returned from Italy Thursday night. His wife, Maureen Orth, and son Luke, are still in Italy.

TVNewser reminds us that "Around 1pmET this afternoon, Russert was conducting a political Q&A on MSNBC.com."

UPDATE 2: NBC Reports

The New York Times currently has a breaking news banner claiming that Tim Russert has died of a heart attack.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and colleagues. We will update as we receive information.

Below the fold, watch some of Jon Stewart's interviews of Tim Russert from happier times.

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The question Tim Russert just posed the candidates is "will you vigorously enforce a statute that says colleges must allow military recruiters on campus and provide ROTC programs?'

This is an interesting question because the primary reason schools currently keep military recruiters off campuses is out of protest against the military's policy of discrimination based on sexual orientation.

In other words, Russert is "not asking" the candidates how they feel about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and they sure aren't telling.