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I wonder if Russert was taking a little aspirin a day to keep a heart attack away.

Ah, the miracle of baby asperin.

Yes, heart patients almost always are put on the baby asperin a day regimen. BUT....don't forget, that aspirin, plus other medications to control placque buildup, tend to THIN the blood.

If a piece of that plaque broke off and lodged in Tim's artery, as is alleged, that baby aspirin, plus any other medication of that sort Tim was taking, likely made him bleed out way quicker than had he not been taking the medication.

Boom, a piece of sharp plaque breaks off and cuts the coronary artery, already stretched quite thin by the buildup of the plaque within. Boom, the internal bleeding begins and by the time they got him to the hospital there was no saving him. First, the ER docs would have to have opened his chest and find out where he's bleeding, then they'd have to give him a transfusion. It was all too much in the short amount of time available.

Truthfully, as I've said before, my cardio guy would not give me permission to leave the hospital after my stress test of death forcing me to sign out against medical advice. I was firmly warned that I was a walking time bomb. I too had been on a protocol of blood thinners and the doc told me that should a piece of plaque break off I could be dead within a minute. He told me the heart was unpredictable and there I was walking around with four veins filled with crap, all ready to pop.

Hey, I took a chance and I knew it. I was scared bejeesus that weekend before my Monday coronary bypass surgery but I'd already been walking around for at least a year with a big heart-shaped bomb in my chest (I had a sort of "coronary" event a year prior which I'd tossed off as my imagination...jaw pain, nausea....).

I made it through that weekend because by golly no way was I going to sit bored and restless all weekend in a hospital and truth be told, the medicos agreed with me. My cardio guy didn't want to take responsibility is all and I don't blame him. Hey, I'm a conservative and I believe in PERSONAL responsibility, which I took when I signed those "AMA" papers. I was fine with the whole thing and if a clot had broken off and killed me so close to the operation that would clear it all, don't cry for me Argentina.

I still think, given all the new information now available, that Russert knew he had heart issues and like me on that fateful weekend, he thought he could beat the odds. Obviously I don't know this for sure but I think he didn't want to undergo such a major operation so close to an election and he hoped the medicine would keep him healthy until he could fit the operation into his schedule.