There are two key words to keep in mind when reading Thomas Ricks’s important and eminently readable new book, “The Generals”: accountability and relief. Accountability is what set Ricks out on his investigation of America’s military leaders from World War II to the present, as in the missing accountability of our generals for the failures of the post-9/11 decade of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. And relief is what Ricks believes has been too often missing, as in the old-fashioned sense of the word and one that is hardly ever used anymore, certainly by the U.S. military: firing.

Backed by a larger caucus, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will stay on in the post for another two years. She will make the announcement at this hour. Nobody will challenge her for the Democratic leadership position.

Even though Democrats picked up at least 8 seats, they still came up 17 seats short or retaking the House. They face the prospect of an unfavorable map bedeviling them from returning to the majority, potentially for the next four cycles. So it’s only natural that Nancy Pelosi, who after all is 72, would consider stepping down.

When people can vote, liberals win. I think that’s one of the major takeaways of the night. Take a look at the historic victories for marijuana legalization, a blow against thirty years of the war on drugs. The measure passed in Washington and Colorado. What’s the unifying thread? Washington is 100% vote-by-mail, and Colorado has enough vote-by-mail and early voting options that 80% of the electorate voted before Election Day. Marriage equality and LGBT rights got validated at the ballot box for the first time ever in four states. What’s the unifying thread? Maine and Minnesota have Election Day registration. Washington, as noted before, is 100% vote by mail. Maryland has ample early voting. Expanding the voter universe with online voter registration completely changed the political landscape in California.

You can argue that some of this has stopped, although the better way to put it is that we leave the dirty work to other countries these days. You cannot argue that this has not damaged US credibility around the world, and given those who want to deflect from their own human rights failings an easy out.

The genius of democracy is the idea that in a room full of smart people, the smartest person is the room.

On this Memorial Day weekend, I give thanks for Hugh Thompson, Jr., Glenn Andreotta, and Lawrence Colburn, who courageously and properly said “no” in the face of misguided fellow soldiers and superiors.

When I hear someone say “thank you for your service” to a member of the military, I think of these three, who embodied the best of what “service to your country” is, in the face of others who embodied that service at its worst.

The country for the most part still likes and trusts Barack Obama the person, but people are now starting to no longer see the president as a strong leader. They’re also beginning to doubt his ability to get things done, according to the latest Pew poll.

Yesterday Grijalva was perfectly willing to hand over his Congressional authority to a new Catfood II Super Congress to slash Social Security and Medicare when he vote for the all-cuts Reid bill.

Obama likes to posit his conception of the world of the possible as the only world available. He has almost never taken a lead on a piece of legislation that he thought would fail, choosing his battles. He has seen the world as it is, and then called that the best world on which we can live.