A Politico profile of Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier gives some insight on how the “Special Report” anchor — whose recent sit-down with Mitt Romney has made headlines — prepares, and conducts, his interviews:

“I always respected the way Tim Russert conducted interviews: Not only was he well prepared with a lot of backup material and quotes and that sort of thing, but he listened and, thereby, changed the follow-up question to be able to dig deeper on a certain issue that perhaps advances the ball in one way or another. So I think the key thing for me in those big interviews is listening to the person I’m interviewing and being able to react [in] real time.”

[...] A Republican consultant who has studied the interviews called Baier “a Boy Scout with a very sharp knife.”

“He has a very gentle demeanor with a very tough underlying message,” the consultant said. “He lulls [interviewees] into a false sense of security, which is why he gets such good stuff. He’s the most gentle of all the anchors on cable, but he’s tougher. People let their guard down.”