There's a surprising team at the bottom of the Eastern conference standings. With a record of 8-22, this talented group is finding new ways to define underachievement. The Washington Wizards combination of terrible effort and lackluster execution has negated the substantial skill on their roster. As of December 30th they have yet to win a single road game.

The most baffling thing about Washington's start is they have the talent to be a high-profile playoff team. They have a terrific young frontcourt with springy seven-footer JaVale McGee and brawny power-forward Andray Blatche. McGee is one of the great shot blockers in the league and Blatche has the potential to be dominant force inside, averaging 21 points-per-game in his first three months of real playing time last season. Rashard Lewis at small-forward is a two-time all-star, a terrific three point shooter and one of the highest paid guys in the league. And the Wizards have Kirk Hinrich and John Wall in the backcourt. The wily Hinrich plays the role of veteran defensive stopper while Wall, the exhilarating number one pick, is an explosive offensive presence. Despite all these big names, the best player for Washington this year has been dazzling but previously unknown two-guard, Nick Young.

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This year has been very frustrating for many progressives. The president in whom many progressives placed so much hope, probably too much, proved himself to be largely a disappointment. Some of the most significant legislation for which President Obama can claim credit during 2010, including the health care reform bill and the recent tax legislation emerged from compromises in which Republicans clearly got a lot more than progressives. President Obama, almost literally, frequently added insult to progressive injury by rhetorically attacking not the conservative Republicans who have sought to destroy Obama since the day he took office, but progressives who have expressed disappointment in his compromises.

The election in November further discouraged progressives as Republican control of the House of Representatives beginning in January will all but assure that no truly significant progressive legislation will come out of Washington anytime soon. It was not only the degree of the Republican victory, but the nature of the victory which saw the further consolidation of the Tea Party as the dominant faction of the Republican Party. The acceptance of bizarre assertions that the president is a socialist, and perhaps not even a citizen, become accepted wisdom among substantial proportions of the population. That particularly rankled many progressives.

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Among the myths about leaders is that they are born and not made. When a leadership vacuum appears, there's stress. Chaos threatens to erupt. It would seem that only a unique person, someone whose chemistry mixes ambition, charisma, and ego, can fill the vacuum. But when teaching an approach I call "the soul of leadership," I begin with the opposite assumption, that leaders appear when awareness meets need. A person who knows what a group actually needs -- the group can be a family, business, team, or political party -- must be more aware than those in need. If they had enough awareness on their own, the leadership vacuum wouldn't persist. Once the need is identified, the leader must take steps to fill the role that it demands.

Rather than speak generally, let me name the specific roles I have in mind. They are arranged from lowest to highest (following a scheme widely familiar as a hierarchy of needs). The point is that higher needs can't be fulfilled until lower ones are met. So the skill of a leader is to know which need must be addressed immediately and then begin to raise the group's awareness so that the next need can be fulfilled.

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In late September the FBI carried out a series of raids of homes and anti-war offices of public activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. Following the raids the Obama Justice Department subpoenaed 14 activists to a grand jury in Chicago and also subpoenaed the files of several anti-war and community organizations. In carrying out these repressive actions, the Justice department was taking its lead from the Supreme Court's 6-3 opinion last June in Holder v. the Humanitarian Law Project which decided that non-violent First Amendment speech and advocacy "coordinated with" or "under the direction of" a foreign group listed by the Secretary of State as "terrorist" was a crime,.

The search warrants and grand jury subpoenas make it quite clear that the federal prosecutors are intent on accusing public non-violent political organizers, many affiliated with Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), of providing "material support," through their public advocacy, for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Secretary of State has determined that both the PLFP and the FARC "threaten US national security, foreign policy or economic interests," a finding not reviewable by the Courts, and listed both groups as foreign terrorist organizations (FTO).

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