WASHINGTON — David Broder, the Pulitzer-Prize winning Washington Post political columnist whose even-handed treatment of Democrats and Republicans set him apart from the ideological warriors on the nation’s op-ed pages, died today. He was 81.

Post officials said Broder died of complications from diabetes.

Broder, an Illinois native, was familiar to television viewers as a frequent panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. He appeared on the program more than 400 times, far more than any other journalist in the show’s history.

A September 2007 study by the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters found that Broder was second among columnists only to George Will in the combined circulation of newspapers in which his column appeared.

He was the only one of the top five that the group did not label as either conservative or liberal.

“His even-handed approach has never wavered. He’d make a good umpire,” wrote Alan Shear, editorial director of The Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicated Broder’s column.

Broder was born in Chicago Heights, Ill. He graduated from the University of Chicago and served in the Army from 1951 to 1953 before beginning his journalism career at the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph. He went on to work for Congressional Quarterly, The Washington Star and The New York Times before joining The Washington Post in 1966. He covered every presidential campaign since 1960.