EJ Dionne: Judy Feder is a "resolutely grounded mainstream thinker"

Somehow I missed this one by EJ Dionne, but it's a good one (albeit a bit late...wish he had written it a few weeks ago!):

In the case of Judy Feder, the other side is pushing the notion that she is some over-the-top liberal -- which doesn't square at all with how practical and careful she is in thinking through programs and policies. When I became a professor at Georgetown, I chose to make the policy school my home because of my admiration for Judy, who was then the dean. I got to know her over the years as one of Washington’s smartest people on health care policy and as someone who really understands how policy and politics come together.

She’s incredibly intelligent, which I suspect voters who have run into her know. But more than that: she cares about what works and about evidence. That’s why the idea contained in one of her opponent’s commercials that her views are “far out” and “extreme” is just wrong. She is a resolutely grounded mainstream thinker. She’s also an infectiously enthusiastic and genuinely warm person, who takes ideas seriously enough that she relates well to conservatives and moderates no less than to her fellow progressives. I’d love to see what she’s do in Congress with all her skills.