Gordon Smith

I totally understand the need to provide a patina of bipartisanship, but it strikes me as a big mistake for the American Progress / Century Foundation event to feature Gordon Smith as a speaker. When someone like Chuck Hagel plays this role you say to yourself "he's from Nebraska, you've got to take what you can get." But Smith's from Oregon, he's got an eminently winnable seat. The last thing progressives need to be doing is helping him bolster his moderate credentials ("we need more leaders like Gordon Smith," says the woman from CAP who's introducing him).