I don't know why so many people (many of them conservatives) give kudos to Russert for asking tough questions. Even if he does ask tough questions, he lets his liberal guests ignore and sidestep them without keeping them on point.
This is what I liked about O'Reilly when I used to watch him. He was the first interviewer to say "I don't think you answered the question" to his guests.
Rush used to go on Russert's show and act as if they were buddies.
I love to watch Brit Hume for a similar reason. He is excellent at challenging the assumptions underlying responses. I really appreciate the way he calls liberals to account when they frame a response with some unspoken assumption to support it. Brit is very good, I think, at forcing them to defend their arguments with actual facts, or at pointing out if the basis of their argument is something that is itself argumentative.
To be fair, Russert confronted Dean a few times. For example when Dean said Democrats were'nt pro-abortion, Russert pointed out the extreme (partial birth, parental notification) demo positions leaving Dean stammering. Same thing when Dean called Bernie Sanders a Democrat and Russert said that 'he calls himself a socialist'.
However, Russert could be much better.