Remember how Republicans used to laugh and laugh about how Patty Murray was the dumbest senator in DC? Well, you wouldn't know it from the accolades she's been getting for pulling off the near impossible: A bipartisan budget deal. So how'd she do it?

Murray kept House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and House Democrats updated throughout the talks and began filling them in on the details as the deal got closer to being finalized, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide. Then she suddenly faced a problem: Van Hollen, among others, like Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), expressed strong opposition to a policy in the deal that would make federal workers pay more for their retirement benefits — an effective pension cut of about $20 billion.

Murray was in a bind: President Barack Obama had proposed the same $20 billion in his 2014 budget, and Ryan was pushing hard for it. Ryan's own budget contained $132 billion in similar cuts so the deck was stacked against Democrats.

Then at the same time, conservative groups began publicly slamming the emerging agreement, based on media reports of it, posing problems for Ryan. He recognized he'd need Democratic votes to pass the deal. Murray convinced him to whittle down the effective pension cuts to $6 billion — about one-fourth of Obama's own proposal, and far below what Ryan wanted — and let it apply only to workers hired after Dec. 31 who have less than five years of civilian service. Additional carve-outs were made for military service members.

Van Hollen was on board. Hoyer wasn't — but he didn't stand in the way. The deal was just about acceptable enough for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to encourage her members to "embrace the suck" and move on. The overwhelming vote for the bill by liberal and conservative House Democrats helped pave the way for unanimous Senate Democratic support.

I don't know how book smart Murray is, but again and again she has proven herself to be an excellent politician. And yet more than two decades after her first surprising senate victory, Republicans continue to underestimate her. And that's a bit of genius in itself.